Ishmael Bayoh, Information Attachè, Sierra Leone Embassy Dakar, Senegal Nouakchott, Mauritania, December 9, 2024:
The Deputy Minister of Technical and Higher Education Mr. Sarjoh Aziz – Kamara is participating in this year’s Continental Education Conference 2024 hosted by the Government of Mauritania and organized by the African Union in partnership with UNICEF with the theme “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st Century”.
The conference brought together leaders and innovators in education development from across Africa, researchers, international organisations and education partners; civil society organisations, the Youth, and Private sector stakeholders.
Holding at the Convention Center (Palais de Congrès), Nouakchott, the conference is expected to produce a comprehensive status of implementation of AU member states decisions and commitments made in recent years to transform education in Africa including an action plan to address bottlenecks and accelerate actions in key areas to reduce out of school children (OOSC).
It is also to improve learning quality, such as curriculum reform, teacher development, digital integration, inclusive education, and reaching the most marginalized, emergency and crisis-affected children based on the review of the implementation of the AU Roadmap of Education and Transforming Education Summit (TES).
This conference is an acknowledgment of AU’s Education as the Theme of the Year 2024, “Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa”.
Sierra Leone has made significant progress in expanding access to education over the years under the visionary leadership of President Bio, with 22 % budgetary allocation for free quality school education. The major policy shifts in Sierra Leone, such as the Radical Inclusion policy, Hands-of-girls are generally commended as best practices to advance access to education, especially gender equity and provision for persons living with disability.
Whilst Sierra Leone has made major strides, many African countries struggle with persisting number of out of school/training children and youths, as well as children not acquiring sufficient foundational literacy and numeracy skills upon which all future learning is built.
A compendium of good practices in terms of successful models and innovative solutions implemented in AU member states, to inspire and guide policy makers for effective transformation of education and skills systems will also be a guiding mark at the end of the conference.
Among the objectives of this continental conference are to appreciate the level of implementation by AU member states of commitment and decisions made to transform education in Africa in recent years.
The conference aims to showcase successful models, and innovative and sustainable solutions of educational transformation across the continent to meet the demands of the 21st century.
It also strengthens partnerships and collaboration to foster knowledge sharing among policymakers, researchers, educators, and civil society stakeholders; and to explore sustainable financing mechanisms for education through strengthened domestic resources and other innovative mechanisms for transforming education systems.