Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

I did not receive a return email from my contact in South Africa but did find some information on the UNESCO website. There was an article about the push to accelerate early childhood care education in Africa. The countries of Angola, São Tomé & Principe, Swaziland and Zambia are working to boost early childhood care in their countries. The counties will be participating in training modules that will provide tools, skills and resources to people working with vulnerable children and their families. One of the fundamentals of IECCE model is that local and indigenous children are to be educated within their cultural context (UNESCO, 2013).

According to the UNESCO website:

Early Childhood Care and Education is having a hard time in Africa. Only a little more than one out of four African child aged between 0-8 get a chance to attend some kind of pre-school activities. But the situation differs enormously between countries and region. According to 2010 data the situation is as follows:

• In Southern Africa (SADC), early childhood enrolment stood at 45% on average
• In East Africa (EAC), only Kenya and Tanzania achieved above 30% level while the average went up to 27%.
• In Central Africa (ECCAS), despite the fact that pre-primary enrolment has more than doubled, the average has only reached 26%.
• In West Africa (ECOWAS) (with the exception of Cabo Verde and Ghana), progress has been more timid and rates (19 percent on average) and well below the average of 28% in sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO, 2013).

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/big_push_workshop_to_accelerate_early_childhood_care_and_education_in_africa/#.Uwl1hvldUQY

The UNESCO website also featured articles regarding the Sub-Saharan Africa children being behind and not being able to reach the goals set for them by the Education for All goals. Key findings of the 2013/14 EFA Global Monitoring report:

• The pre-primary education gross enrolment ratio increased from 10% in 1999 to 18% in 2011, leaving the region lagging behind all others regions.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is far from achieving universal primary education (net enrolment ratio of 77%). No progress has been made since 2007, leaving nearly 30 million African children out of school.
• By 2011, the net enrolment ratio at lower secondary school reached 49%, but the number of adolescents out of school in the region remained at 22 million between 1999 and 2011, due to population growth.
• The number of illiterate African adults has increased by 37% since 1990, mainly due to population growth, reaching 182 million in 2011. By 2015, it is projected that 26% of all illiterate adults will live in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 15% in 1990.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, with teacher recruitment lagging behind growth in enrolment, pupil/teacher ratios stagnated and are now the highest in the world at the pre-primary and primary levels (UNESCO, 2013).

According to the report, a global learning crisis is costing $129 billion a year. Ten per cent of global spending on primary education is lost on poor quality education that is failing to ensure that children learn. This situation leaves one in four people in poor countries unable to read (UNESCO, 2014). The need for good teachers was expressed as this would help with children get the quality education that they need that would in turn help boost the economy in the future.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/education_for_all_goals_are_unlikely_to_be_reached_by_2015_in_africa/#.Uwl4I_ldUQY

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/severe_learning_crisis_in_sub_saharan_africa/#.Uwl5iPldUQY