ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- With one out of eight African children at age 10 unable to read or understand a simple text, addressing learning poverty is critical for realizing the continent's developmental goals, a senior African Union (AU) official has said.
Gaspard Banyankimbona, commissioner for education, science, technology and innovation of the AU Commission, said that ending learning poverty through evidence-based reforms is a must for Africa to develop over the coming decade.
"Africa stands at a crossroads: either we invest in our children's minds today, or we pay the price of instability, inequality, and dependency tomorrow," Banyankimbona warned on Thursday at a press briefing on the sidelines of the 48th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council, held at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
The commissioner called for a high-level political commitment by African governments to place education, science, technology, and innovation at the center of Africa's socio-economic transformation, industrialization, and peace-building agenda.
Banyankimbona emphasized that the solution to Africa's foundational education crisis lies in empowering teachers.
"Teachers are one of the most important stakeholders in the learning process. However, they are in short supply," he said, pointing out that the continent needs 17 million additional teachers by 2030 to meet its universal education goals.
"By 2034, every African child must achieve foundational literacy and numeracy; every young person must acquire skills aligned with the green and digital economies; every teacher must be trained, valued, and empowered as a nation-builder, and African higher education institutions must become engines of research, innovation, and problem-solving," the commissioner said.
He encouraged AU members to invest more in research and development toward the target of 1 percent of their gross domestic product, establish national innovation hubs and fully domesticate and integrate the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa into their national strategies.
In 2026, he said, the AU will hopefully roll out the African Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Fund to catalyze investments in teacher training, education technology and skills labs.
According to the commissioner, the fund will support foundational learning, teacher development, digital transformation, research and innovation commercialization, skills alignment with the green and digital economies, and strengthened African ownership of knowledge systems. ■
