Mr Archibald Adams, a Communications and Advocacy Specialist, has called on the youth across the continent to advocate the implementation of all AU-related education policies to promote holistic and all-inclusive education.
The policies include the AU Continental Education Strategy for Africa which aims to re-orient Africa’s education and training systems to meet the knowledge, competencies, skills, innovation and creativity required to nurture African core values and promote sustainable development at the national, sub-regional and continental levels.
Others are the Technical, Vocational Education and Training Continental strategy which provides a comprehensive framework for the design and development of national policies and strategies to address the challenges of economic development, creation of national wealth and contribute to poverty reduction through youth entrepreneurship, innovation and employment.
Mr Adams made the call at the ‘Sixth Gender Is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC)’ Strategic Engagement wit
h the AU, Regional Economic Communities and partners on the theme: Advancing Educational Transformation for Gender Equity and Sustainability towards Agenda 2063′.
He was speaking on the AU theme for the year: ‘Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.’
Another AU policy that had to be given an attention, he said was the Aspiration six of the Agenda 2063 which focused on youth empowerment through education and skill development, participation of youth in decision-making and development initiatives, ensuring they accessed quality education and training.
The youth are also expected to amplify voices for the implementation of the Pan African University and Pan African Institute of Education for Development among others.
Mr Adams said the UNESCO (2023), more than 100 million children remained outside formal education system in Africa with one-fifth between six and 11 years and one-thir
d between 12 and 14 years.
Nearly 60 per cent of young people between 15 and 17 years are not in school in Sub-Saharan Africa, he said adding that the continent also needed more than six million teachers to achieve universal primary education by 2030.
Meanwhile, he said the continent was home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies with countries like Botswana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia expected to double in the next 20 years.
Mr Adams said 30 per cent of the world’s reserves of precious minerals- gold And silver are in Africa, 75 per cent of the world’s diamond is African with an export of a total value of 160 billion dollars.
With all progress, he said the youth had a huge role to play to promote Pan-Africanism and education and development as a whole.
He, therefore, called on them to build bridges across borders by fostering networks of collaboration and solidarity with youth from different African countries and the diaspora and by exchanging ideas, sharing experiences and working t
ogether on common challenges.
Mr Adams also entreated the youth to advocate the bridging of the digital divide to promote rapid access to reliable Internet and the availability of digital tools and devices in schools, leveraging partners with technology companies and investments in ICT infrastructure.
‘Also advocate the payment of dues, implementation of policies and initiatives adopted by the AU and their respective sub-regional blocs, contribute to continental peace and stability among others,’ he advised.
Dr Yordanos Wolde, a Youth Advocate, speaking on ‘Empowering Youth advocates on role of education’ said the youth could only be advocates if they were knowledgeable to be able to support or argue against a policy or issue at hand.
‘Advocacy in education is very important because we the youth are the most affected by policies since we make the majority of the population.
‘Every country needs the youth to build it or destroy it and that is more so because 70 per cent of the world’s population are the y
outh,’ she said.
Dr Wolde called on the leadership across the continent to think of education as an investment and not a debt and strive hard to ensure that it had the best policies and operations.