KEYIR NEWS - The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with UNICEF and key development partners, has inaugurated a high-level validation workshop aimed at addressing Africa’s entrenched learning crisis through foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) reforms.
Held at the AUC headquarters in Addis Ababa from July 22–23, the gathering brought together senior technical experts from 25 Member States, as well as representatives from the Gates Foundation and other education stakeholders. The workshop seeks to validate the continent-wide mapping of evidence-based, scalable interventions that have demonstrably improved FLN outcomes.
Prof. Saidou Madougou, Director of the AUC’s Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (ESTI), underscored the urgency of reversing alarming statistics: “This resource identifies what works across Africa—from structured pedagogy in Uganda, to mother-tongue instruction in Ethiopia, and level-based teaching in Zambia. These are not isolated pilots; they are replicable solutions poised to deliver systemic change.”
Despite major strides in enrolment, nine in ten children in Africa still fail to read and comprehend a simple sentence by age 10. Experts warn that this chronic learning deficit poses grave implications for human capital development and long-term economic growth.
Dr Laila Gad, UNICEF Representative to the African Union and UNECA, described the event as pivotal in institutionalising knowledge sharing: “This platform fosters not just policy dialogue, but meaningful uptake of what has worked. Cross-country fertilisation and political commitment will be essential to embedding these practices into national education plans.”
The outcomes of the workshop will feed into the broader End Learning Poverty for All in Africa (ELPAf) campaign, a flagship AU–UNICEF initiative launched in 2024. With a four-year mandate, ELPAf aims to strengthen foundational learning as the bedrock of equitable education systems across the continent.