Covid-19 has disrupted our education systems and widened inequalities. School closures have created unintended negative consequences on the welfare of learners. Many learners in the continent have lost between six months and one year of schooling, possibly more for the marginalised children. 

According to the World Bank, these learning losses could translate over time into millions of dollars of lost earnings for the global economy because of lower levels of learning, the lost months of schooling during the lockdown, and potential dropping out from school. 

Our education landscape can never be the same after this unprecedented pandemic of Covid-19. The virus has revealed the fragility of our education systems and broken many dreams of young girls and boys.

It is threatening the progress made by African countries in terms of access, participation and completion at primary and secondary levels of education.

Successful school feeding programmes that ensured improved nutrition at basic education levels have been cut off, as well as heightened the vulnerability level of our girls within and outside the family setting.

Our response will impact the future generations to come, especially that of our grandchildren. It is our social responsibility as a parent, teacher or policy-maker to influence policy, planning and practice.

We need to reimagine our world, as part of our duty as citizens to improving people’s lives. It is thus imperative that we look at this unprecedented crisis as an opportunity.

Reimagining education

On average, class sizes in the Sub-Saharan Africa comprise around 50 students. It has been argued for many years that class sizes have to be reduced in order to enhance the quality of learning. Due to the social distancing post-Covid measures being put in place, it looks like class sizes will definitely reduce. However this means more teachers and more classrooms, implying a higher education budget.

This calls for a massive investment in public expenditure. At a time when countries are struggling with the economic impact of Covid-19, it is important to ensure that education budgets are not diverted to health care or other areas. Civil society and youth organisations have to scrutinise their national budgets to ensure that this does not happen. 

Financing education will only come through building wider national ownership from the community. It is by working together that we can build sustainable financed public education systems and contribute to building economies and societies that deliver on the Africa we want, the African Union’s vision as outlined in Agenda 2063.

Placing learners at the centre

Furthermore, this pandemic is giving us the opportunity to re-think the concept of teaching and learning. In most African countries, the teacher is at the centre of the learning process, where the learner does not participate fully in knowledge construction.

We need to focus on the learner being at the centre and involved in the co-construction of knowledge. This momentum comes at the right time, when countries are preparing for a ‘new normal’ where teaching and learning will be different from what we have known.

As schools are slowly re-opening around the world, many ministries of education are coming up with different scenarios for the new academic year. Many schools will not be able to welcome all students full-time due to physical distancing rules and other protective measures. School calendars will have to be modified, re-entry staggered and teaching provided in shifts. Blended learning, incorporating both face-to face interactions as well as distance education will now become the ‘new normal’.

This means that the learner has to become autonomous and control their learning, co-constructing their knowledge. Learners have to find innovative ways of looking for information. It is important to embrace innovative solutions to build a student-centric ecosystem that substantially transforms learning.

This is a first step towards transformative learning. Jack Mezirow (US sociologist and educator) defines transformative learning as “an orientation which holds that the way learners interpret and reinterpret their sense experience is central to making meaning and hence learning.”

We are thus empowering the youth to make their own choices about learning, building on innovative school practices and nurturing local exchanges and sharing of knowledge and practices.

In conclusion, Covid-19 has enabled us to think about how to improve the resilience of our education systems, and how to become better equipped to face other potential crises.

We need systems that are more flexible, fully dedicated to all learners, girls and boys, with interactive, hands-on teaching and learning strategies enhanced by technology or ICT and with the full involvement of all citizens.

Dr Rita Bissoonauth heads the African Union International Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA), based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

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Girls and women face gender-based violence in schools and university, but a considerable number also find school to be a safe haven when they face abuse and poverty at home. Post-COVID education needs to rely on more sustainable and holistic measures that go beyond just accessing education, but also address the obstacles encountered by girls and young women in accessing quality education and completing the school cycle.

COVID-19 is a human, economic and social crisis affecting everyone, and Africa, like the rest of the world, has not been spared.

With the rapid rise of coronavirus infections, African governments have adopted measures to curb the spread, including closing spaces of worship, markets and educational institutions.

Close to 250 million African children out of school

By April 6, 2020, 53 African Union Member states had shut down their institutions of learning. This left over 20 million learners out of school at pre-primary level, 160 million at primary, 56 million at secondary, and 8 million at tertiary level, with no access to continued learning and teaching facilities across the continent.

The African Union International Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA), in line with its mandate, organized two multi-stakeholder webinars on Addressing Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Girls and Women’s Education.

The aim was to discuss the wide array of initiatives undertaken at grassroots, national and regional levels as educational responses to COVID-19, and come up with concrete recommendations to ensure that learning does not stop.

In his welcome address, Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, Director, Human Resources, Science & Technology Department at the African Union Commission, highlighted that with shuttered schools, African girls are at increased risk abuse, sexual violence, trafficking, social exclusion and forced labor.

Schools typically provide safe spaces for girls. When they are in school, they are less likely to be forced into marriage and be abused sexually. During this pandemic, however, schools are not there to protect girls.Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, Director, Human Resources, Science & Technology Department, African Union Commission

Additional risks faced by girls

Girls and women face gender-based violence in schools and university but a considerable number also find school to be a safe haven when they face abuse and poverty at home.

During the webinar, representatives from civil society, religious leaders and young women underlined how this situation had caused many young women to stop learning.

Many of them have had to return to the agricultural fields to help their families, have become unpaid domestic workers and are exposed to transactional sex and/or prostitution.

This crisis has also increased discouragement among girls and young women, clouded their hopes of success with heightened pressure from their parents to drop out of school, enter the labor market or get married.

Representatives from ministries of Education in AU member states shed light on their approaches to ensuring girls continue learning during the pandemic. Efforts have been deployed to disseminate reliable messages on TV, radio and social media to address education and health concerns of learners, parents and guardians.

Learners without internet or radio have received hard copies of teaching and learning resources. Radios have been distributed to parents and caregivers in remote areas, as teachers are actively engaged in radio learning programs to facilitate distance learning.

In many African countries, GPE is supporting continuity of learning, including the delivery of distance learning, especially for the most vulnerable, teacher support, safely re-opening schools, and strengthening resilience of education systems.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Rethinking education post-crisis

Although the efforts being made are commendable, there is need for more sustainable and holistic measures that go beyond just accessing education but address the obstacles encountered by girls and young women in accessing quality education and completing the school cycle.

Before the epidemic, and according to UNESCO estimates, 23% of girls were out of primary school compared to 17% of boys. By the time they become adolescents, the education exclusion rate for girls was 39% in comparison to 36% for boys (UIS, 2019).

There is need for more governments to develop post COVID-19 strategic plans for reopening schools, plans that take into account the needs of girls and young women.

The lockdowns have shown the need for governments to invest in nationwide ICT infrastructure in schools, including strategic crisis management plans and funds geared towards education, to make it easier for a smooth continuation of education during times of crisis.

Keeping track of students who don’t return to school

In concluding the webinar, I underlined that as schools reopen, school administrators and teachers should make sure girls and young women are re-enrolling and returning back to the classroom.

Member states and development partners need to continue sharing experiences and best practices during and post the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforce the importance of girls and women’s education to the development of individual nations and the continent within local communities.

Ministries should be tracking the numbers of children affected by school closures and provide gender disaggregated data to ensure they can act if a significant number of girls and boys do not return to school.

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Africa is firmly committed to transforming its education. To achieve the ideal of a prosperous, peaceful and integrated Africa, there is a need to take the necessary measures to ensure that all citizens fully participate in the development process. Education is one the cornerstones towards achieving this objective.

In spite of the efforts made to advance girls’ rights to access education in Africa, the school life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa is 9 years (UNESCO 2016). Therefore, the objective of 12 years of quality education remains a distant reality for millions of girls on the continent.

Hence the urgent need to speed up the establishment of gender-sensitive education systems to ensure that girls and women can fully participate in the teaching and learning process.

A gender strategy to support Africa’s education strategy

During the 3^rd African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology (STC-EST) in December 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the importance of integrating gender in education sector planning was underscored by the ministers and senior officials who attended the meeting.

The Gender Equality Strategy for the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 16-25 (GES4CESA) is a tool developed to assist Member States in reorienting their education and training systems in order to ensure that as many girls and women acquire the knowledge, competencies, skills, innovation and creativity required to foster Africa’s development.

GES4CESA was jointly developed by the AU/CIEFFA and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) with the support of United Nations Girl’s Education Initiative (UNGEI). Other key partners like GPE attended the validation meeting and made inputs.

It is incredibly important as a strong continental normative framework that articulates gender equality commitments for the continent, alongside Agenda 2063, and the Nairobi Declaration. Arguably, no other region has such a powerful accountability mechanism at this point, but it will require concerted effort and capacity for countries to deliver on these commitments.

“This will play a key role in closing the gaps we currently observe in educational systems on the continent”, outlined H.E. Prof. Sarah Anyang Agbor, Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology of the African Union Commission.

The popularization of the GES4CESA was underscored by participants in order to accelerate its ownership at national level. To this end, they urged the AU/CIEFFA and its partners to develop strategies in order to raise awareness on this very important document and strengthen countries’ capacities for its smooth implementation at national level.

Experiences from Malawi, South Sudan and Zimbabwe clearly showed that countries having undergone training sessions on gender-responsive education sector planning (GRESP) and GES4CESA have good performance indicators on girls’ and women’s education.

GRESP regional training workshops are convened by UNGEI and GPE with support from regional partners, including the AU-CIEFFA and FAWE. They have been critical in advancing a gender transformative agenda in partnership with regional and global partners.

Prioritizing an inclusive approach

However, the successful implementation of this tool and other instruments developed by other development stakeholders can only work if an inclusive and participatory approach is adopted to effectively engender education systems in Africa.

In this regard, the AU/CIEFFA was encouraged by ministers to keep engaging different stakeholders namely the Pan Parliament, Regional Economic Communities, African Union organs and specialized Institutions, traditional and religious leaders, CSOs, media, the youth and especially the African governments for the implementation of policies pertaining to girls and women’s education.

There is a need to enhance coherence and ensure maximum impact through coordination and alignment of the various initiatives targeting girls and women’s education. These actors will also monitor countries efforts toward achieving concrete results and hold them accountable.

Collaboration with these partners increases the chances to overcome challenges hampering girls’ retention and completion in schools such as early marriage, pregnancies, non-gender sensitive teaching and learning environments, conflicts, etc.

Ministers of Education requested Members States to implement additional measures to increase enrollment and retention of girls in educational systems and support the transition of girls to higher education in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.Subscribe to our blog alertsEmail

Gender at the center of education in emergencies

Putting gender at the center of education in emergencies was one of the recommendations from the meeting as the African Union will be focusing on the theme “silencing the guns” during the year 2020.

UNHCR (2016) estimated that for every 10 refugee boys in primary school there are fewer than 8 refugee girls. This implies the need for a gender-responsive education program encompassing the narrative of girls and young women growing up in crisis-affected contexts in order to strengthen their resilience and potential to rebuild their lives and shape their communities. 

This is in line with the GES4CESA, which calls for “mobilizing communities and galvanizing resources for the Go-to-school/Back-to-school/Stay-in-school campaigns to help in healing societies, putting them back on the road to recovery and normalcy and make them hopeful of a more peaceful and prosperous future.”

Africa’s development objectives will only be met through education if leaders fully implement laws and frameworks aiming to put in place fully inclusive education systems.

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Girls and young women’s access, retention and completion in schools is still of huge concern in Africa. The latest figures from UNESCO (2019) show that 52 million girls are not in school in Africa, while 4 million will never step into a classroom compared to 2 million boys.

Africa also has the highest rate of out of school children and adolescents globally However, girls remain more likely to be permanently excluded from education and at a higher risk of being left behind. This reality calls for redoubling efforts to ensure education is both of good quality and equitable.

Achieving the aspirations of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals requires closing the gender gaps in education. Only by partnership, coordination and identifying and working closely with key community stakeholders can significant progress be made for girls and women in Africa.

Since 2017, the African Union’s International Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA), in line with the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), is striving to involve traditional and religious leaders towards the empowerment of girls and women in and through education.

AU/CIEFFA’s believes that girls and women can play a key role in reshaping attitudes, social and cultural norms, and influence community behavior to promote girls’ access to quality education and retention in school. 
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Religious and traditional leaders engage and influence families, communities, parliamentarians and decision-makers in communities. They are gatekeepers of certain traditions and norms that are drivers of gender inequality. However, they also have power and influence to help unlock challenges and remove barriers to girls and women’s education by bringing every other key decision-maker on board.

Religious leaders fight for girls’ right to education

Queen Mother Theresa Kachindamoto, paramount chief (called Inkosi) from the Dedza District in the central region of Malawi, is a prolific traditional leader. She is famously known in her country as the “child marriage terminator”.

She has prevented more than 500 child marriages in her district, showing her commitment to the well-being of girls’ and women.

Her interventions and working together with CSOs, teachers, mothers groups and other religious leaders, have saved hundreds of girls from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and enabled many girls to return to school.

As a custodian of our traditions and values, I believe that we have the responsibility of choosing what is good for children. Giving them the chance to go to school is one of the best things we can give themQueen Mother Theresa Kachindamoto, paramount chief, Malawi

In Mauritania, Imam Abdallahi Sar encourages his community to educate girls in his mosque. He shared with AU-CIEFFA his core belief that it is impossible to conceive a better and prosperous future without African girls in school – more than half of the population comprises women and girls.

When you educate a girl, you are educating the whole society. Islamic teachings highlight that the quest for knowledge is important for both girls and boys.
 Imam Abdallahi Sar, Mauritania

Engaging traditional and religious leaders for more impact

By bringing together religious and traditional leaders into a constructive dialogue, AU/CIEFFA seeks to contribute to sustainable solutions to girls accessing and staying in school, and to foster new pathways to gender equality.

The Second dialogue of the AU/CIEFFA with traditional and religious leaders on girls’ education in Africa held in Kampala, Uganda, in June 2019, was an opportunity for 35 traditional and religious leaders on the continent to reiterate their commitment to uphold girls’ and young women’s right to access education and to learn at all levels of educational systems.

A key outcome of the dialogue was a communiqué outlining key recommendations on the necessity to:

• Redefine roles and responsibilities of faith-based organizations at community level in promoting acceleration of girls’ access to education and their retention in educational systems
• Establish or consolidate existing platforms for traditional and religious leaders who champion girls’ and women’s education in Africa with the facilitation of AU/CIEFFA
• Share best practices on girls and women’s education and empowerment with communities and implement innovative approaches and cultural transformation, in particular increase the completion rates of girls at all levels of education.

As a way forward, the African Union platform of the Council of Traditional Leaders in Africa (COTLA) was established as the ideal way to carry out advocacy and advance girls’ and women’s education across the continent.

The African Union and the Global Partnership for Education collaborate in strategic advocacy on education including the AU End Child Marriage Campaign, first ever High Level Heads of State Dialogue on Financing Education in Africa, promoting pre-primary education at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, and youth blog series recognizing young education innovators in Africa. AU-CIEFFA, GPE and UNGEI have also collaborated on making education systems gender responsive through the Gender Responsive Education Sector Planning regional workshops.

GPE’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) seeks to get innovative solutions into the hands of policy makers. Gender Equality is one of the thematic areas to be funded by KIX.

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