Paris, France – June 28, 2022
Honourable President Banda, thank you for inviting me to this critically important gathering and for your kind words.
Good afternoon, Excellencies and Distinguished Guests.
I would like to express my gratitude to my dear sister, Dr Oby and her team at Human Capital Africa for convening us this afternoon to discuss the future of African youth and meaningfully address the learning crisis plaguing Sub Saharan Africa.
As President Banda has highlighted for us, the breadth of the learning crisis is devastating and well known. Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, sub-Saharan Africa had the dishonorable distinction of the highest rate of children not learning, with 9 out of 10 children between 6- 14 years not meeting minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics.i Equally as frightening, and perhaps even more alarming, however, is that the depth and consequences of this crisis are often unacknowledged and impossible to accurately quantify.
It is well documented that the learning crisis undermines sustainable growth and poverty reduction, and is a major contributor to human capital deficits.ii This equation is a deadly one. But one that is taken far too lightly at our own peril. The results of our apathy and lack of action to improve our education systems and invest in better academic outcomes will be felt for decades to come. Quite clearly, we are condemning the African continent to be even worse off in 20 years’ time than it is now.
Africa’s children are being handicapping and we are setting up the next generations for catastrophe. There will never be escape from the entrapment of intergenerational cycles of poverty Africa finds itself in now, nor the ability to contribute our full talents to advance our societies or compete on a global stage should we continue on this path of self-destruction.
This is a failure of monumental proportions. The millions of children who are intellectually stunted by a lack of adequate learning opportunities today are the very same people who we are entrusting to lead our communities and our nations tomorrow.
Do we not see the shameful inevitability that we are going to be worse off than where we are now? How can we contemplate such a possibility? Why do we allow this morally intolerable and economically ruinous legacy to exist and persist? It is simply unacceptable.
This disparity originates in a failure of our own imagination and our own apathy as the stewards of our younger generations.
This is especially relevant now given the need to recover and accelerate learning as we struggle to rebuild from the most acute phases of COVID-19. And let me briefly stop and point out the hypocrisy we seem to have normalized here. It is wealthy families and middle-income communities who have been largely spared from the detrimental clutches of learning poverty. Yet we have millions of children in rural areas and in peri-urban settings who are relegated to sub-standard public schools. Why have we let this scandalous inequity become the norm?
It is imperative to rescue public schools and bring them to the center of education investments. Every public school should be of the same standard and quality as any private institution. Both our private and public schools must enable every African child, boy and girl; in urban and rural areas alike; to achieve mastery of key competencies in the foundational years to succeed in higher academic levels, and power their careers and our economies.
We must see each other as one. Our public school pupils ought to be able to enjoy the same standard of foundational education as those attending private schools. Girls must achieve graduation parity with their male counterparts and must benefit from the same nurturing to academic success that boys enjoy. Whether a child calls a village or a township home, they must receive the same quality academic building blocks on which to stand tall and thrive as those in our leafy suburbs and bustling cities.
Clearly, we have a crisis of unprecedented magnitude and need to urgently move into crisis resolution mode. I am so glad to see organizations such as Human Capital Africa leading the charge in this regard.
The experts tell us that achieving at least minimum proficiency levels of foundational learning, as defined by the Global Proficiency Framework and measured by SDG 4 is an attainable goal- -even in our low resource contexts and in conflict and crisis-affected contexts!iii This is why I am so glad we are convening at UNSECO this week.
I am sure everyone gathered here will agree that to reach this goal, much better coordination and commitment are needed at global, regional, and country levels.
Existing mechanisms, education ministries, academics and education-focused organizations need to dedicate significant brain trust, resourcing and coordinated planning dedicated to foundational learning.
I appeal to us all: national governments, research institutions, development partners, private sector, civil society and care givers. We are all bound together and must work hand in hand; for we are all equally tasked with ensuring children receive the foundational education they need and deserve to be well-equipped leaders of tomorrow. No one can escape this mantle of collective responsibility.
Achieving desired learning levels will require new approaches to education sector development, along with strong commitment, investment, focus, and coordination. I am pleased to see UNESCO alongside Human Capital Africa and other stakeholders taking this mission seriously and building an ecosystem of partners to advance foundational learning over this Transforming Education Pre-summit.
A monumental injection of resourcing to improve teacher training and quality of instruction – – including digital teaching and learning —is desperately needed.
There is no overcoming the learning crisis without upskilling and improving the quality of teachers, and ensuring they are well remunerated. Without a stellar teacher workforce, we will not have the results we seek– especially in our public schools.
We live in times of plenty. We have the necessary resources, knowledge, innovation, and technology which allows us to reach every child, everywhere.
Developed countries invest billions upon billions of dollars in military, diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to promote democracy. On a daily basis we are witnessing massive financial muscle being exercised in the blink of an eye. Yet, the level of investment required for foundational learning is nowhere the same magnitude nor speed of delivery. Certainly, there can be no better way to promote democracy than to invest heavily in the millions and millions of young minds which are eager to be ignited.
There is no justification whatsoever for this movement of transformation to fail.
Education has always been a subject very close to my heart. I have been closely affiliated with education nearly all my life, be it in the capacity of the first Minister of Education of Mozambique in the mid-1970s through the late 1980s or establishing the Forum for African Women Educationalists in the 1990s. So, I can say in all humility, that there is no excuse for us today.
With all the decision-making power at our disposal, and all the resources we own and have stewardship over, we have no reason not to provide a solid foundation to each child on the African continent.
I have seen first-hand the impact that education can create and how it empowers people. I myself come from a very poor village and am the last-born child of a widowed mother who brought up 6 children on her own. The best gift our mother gave us was the gift of education. I could have been condemned to a life of illiteracy and poverty. But I am proof that a quality education can lift every child regardless of the circumstances of their birth.
I am endorsing President Banda’s appeal and call upon African leaders to firstly acknowledge the magnitude of the challenge that we face, and then take immediate remedial actions to make sure that we offer our children a fair chance of succeeding in this world. Mine is not just a diplomatic appeal or a polite request. It is my cry of desperation. Bold action is required NOW.
The lives of our children are at stake and so is the fate of our continent. I assure you that once we commit ourselves to this cause, there is nothing that can stop us from succeeding. History will judge us harshly if we do not resolve this crisis. It will become the crime of our generation. Failure is not an option.
I thank you
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.