Bio
Honored among the 100 Most Influential African Women of 2020.
After earning a Masters degree in Biochemistry, Dr Rita started teaching Biological Sciences at secondary level in Mauritius before joining the Mauritius Institute of Education, where she trained teachers at under-graduate and post-graduate levels in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Science Education.
In 1998, Rita started her Ph.D. Education at the Université du Québec a Montréal, Montréal, Canada where she was also a part-time lecturer in Science Education and a research assistant exploring workplace-based training in Technical Vocation Education and Training (TVET).
In 2007, Rita joined the African Union Commission in the Education Division in Addis Ababa Ethiopia as a Senior Policy Officer for five years, where she contributed to ensure Ministerial decisions on access to a minimum of five years secondary education for all African learners.
In 2014, Rita became the first African Union Head of Mission of the African Union/International Centre for Girls and women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA).
Over the past six years, Rita has striven to ensure that AU/CIEFFA has become the reference point for girls and women’s education in the continent. She has mobilized resources from developing partners for the implementation of programs relating to the re-enforcement of legal instruments for girls to access education, gender-sensitive teaching and learning environments and Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)-focused TVET.
