Access to quality education for all children is important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals especially in Africa. However, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and access to electricity have continued to be burning issues hindering access to quality education in Africa. However, empirical evidence on the impact of ICTs…

COVID-19 school closures initially revealed more than 75% of children lacked access to critical digital learning opportunities. Three out of four were living in the poorest 40% of households. Digital learning is impossible without connectivity and electricity. However, in places like Chad, Malawi and Niger, the proportion of people with access to…

Despite incredible advances of humanity, inequality, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, remains an unresolved issue at a global level. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established in 2000 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, seek to address those inequities through a series of objectives to be reached by the…

Virtual universities have developed considerably over the past decade, particularly on the African continent. They provide a way to deal with the considerable need to educate a large young population, but the lack of physical space can be a drawback that prevents students from succeeding and increasing dropout compared to a more traditional…

Significant progress has been made to close gender gaps in education over the last 25 years. Nevertheless, gender inequalities persist and education remains elusive for many girls. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that 11.2 million girls and young women may drop out or not have access to…

The advent of COVID-19, a new and highly contagious form of Corona virus, in late 2019 cast a harsh light on human vulnerabilities and on the provocations (and opportunities) facing humanity. Although many of the more drastic measures applied within educational settings have since ceased to apply, at least for the time being, we are not yet 'past…

Access to education is a significant determinant in future success, not only for a country but equally for individuals. Higher Education (HE) thus is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals and vital in supporting African development. Despite this, there is often a lack of access to HE in many parts of Africa, distance education can…

Education systems in under-resourced environments face several challenges, some of them exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A possible way to address some of the challenges is to apply information and communication technologies. However, effectively integrating technology into education systems is a complex task. In this paper, factors…

During the first four weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown, African countries recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic would be one of the biggest disasters the continent has faced in recent times. The effects of the virus were being felt at unprecedented levels and like all nations in the world, countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) were…

The COVID-19 outbreak stimulated an outbreak of online learning in many institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Educational institutions went beyond fighting the COVID-19 through social distancing norms to tackling Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4) with the adoption of online learning as the new modality for instruction. Online learning has…

The study investigated the situation and views of the Education International (EI) member unions in Africa regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The EI, a global body of education unions with over 32.5 million members in 384 unions across 178 countries in the world, is a critical global education stakeholder. It commissioned this study to obtain…

In developing countries as in developed countries, the COVID-19 crisis has led to near universal school closures that will affect children's ability to learn, especially in countries with limited infrastructure for distance learning. While most children are likely to return to school when they reopen, quite a few may drop out. In addition, the…

At any one time, about 300 million children of school going age are not in school. Experience indicates that when schooling is disrupted, whether by a pandemic, a natural disaster or other reasons, not all children return to the classroom. In addition, most countries have growing numbers of young people who have not completed schooling, or not…

By 16 March 2020, most education systems in the EU neighbourhood and Central Asia had closed their schools. In a matter of days, some distance learning was offered in most systems and in the ensuing weeks, most countries steadily broadened the offer and the extent of participation. This short report aims to describe what happened in the countries…

This report, which has been developed through a partnership between the African Union Commission (AUC) and UNICEF, aims to: (1) track the progress that African nations have made in education, especially in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) goals; (2) identify the challenges…