A number of African countries have not met any education funding benchmarks for the last 10 years.
On the Day of the African Child on 16th June, Human Rights Watch reported that most of the African Union’s governments have failed to meet education funding targets set either regionally or globally.
Lack of investment means lack of education progress
UNESCO monitors the national data for its Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality education, which aims to provide children and young people with ‘quality and easy access to education’. The data reveals that 14 African countries have not met a single education funding benchmark for the last decade. While it appears that many governments are enthusiastic about improving education, they do not back it up with investment.
Education in Africa today
With 55 member states and approximately 1.5 billion people, the region is a prime candidate for education improvement. Today, over 100 million children are thought to be out of school, with numbers increasing over the last 10 years due to conflict, COVID-19, school closures, gender gaps and population increases.
In many African countries, students must pay to go to school, which immediately discriminates against those who cannot afford it, excluding them from education and affecting their life chances. For those countries removing school fees, such as Kenya, enrolment increased hugely, creating a new problem of schools not having enough funding or teachers to support their huge pupil intakes.
Many African governments struggle to fund education while managing conflicts and climate-related issues. However, Morocco, Namibia and Sierra Leone are the only three countries that provide free primary and secondary education and have met their funding targets over the last 10 years.
