Educators Call on the AU and Members States to Invest in Teachers for the Africa We Want

Education International Africa organised an online forum on 19 March 2025 to disseminate the newly adopted African Union (AU)’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) 2026 – 2035, and to develop and share strategies for national mobilisation to ensure  full implementation of the strategy by African governments. The forum gathered more than 128 participants representing the leadership of EI member organisations and the various EI Africa educators networks in Africa. 
 
The forum was also attended by the Head of the Education Division of the African Union Commission who presented the new continental strategy and highlighted the urgency to invest in teachers in achieving the new CESA goal and the key role of advocacy to ensure full implementation of the strategy. The forum underscored the acute shortage of teachers resulting from the underfunding and underinvestment of the education sector in African countries as one of the key obstacles for achieving the global SDG4 and the continental CESA targets for an inclusive quality education for the Africa We Want articulated through the African Union’s sustainable development Agenda 2063.
 
In his welcome remarks, Dr Dennis Sinyolo, the EI Africa Regional Director recalled that Africa is furthest away from achieving SDG 4 despite some progress, and that the targets of the current African Union’s  education strategy, CESA 2016 – 2025 will be missed. He emphasised that the African Union’s Agenda 2063 on ‘The Africa we Want’ cannot be achieved without adequate investment in education and teachers.  He then encouraged EI member organisations to use the opportunity of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel Recommendations on the teaching profession to put pressure on their governments to ensure that they invest adequately in education and teachers. This call was also echoed by Mariama Chipkaou, the EI Africa Regional Committee Chairperson in her opening remarks as she stressed the need to involve education unions’ throughout the process of implementation of the new continental education strategy. 
 
Participants, through panel discussions and questions and answers shared strategies they used in their implementation of the EI Go Public! Fund Education campaign to bring government representatives, Members of Parliament and other stakeholders to realise the financing gap and the need for immediate action to address education challenges.
 
The forum adopted a statement calling on the African Union and the governments to ensure effective and full implementation of CESA 26-35. 
 

[Mon, 07 Apr 2025 11:33:35 +0000] | DIGG THIS


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