Venue: Radisson Blu Dakar Sea Plaza, Dakar Senegal
WHAT: AU/CIEFFA Education Expert Meeting
THEME: Assessing learning losses to embrace learning recovery for African girls
WHEN: 21st – 23rd June 2022
TIME: 08:00 – 17:00 (GMT)
WHO: African Union International Centre for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa
Key Speakers:
- E. Prof. Mohamed Belhocine, Commissioner, ESTI-AUC;
- HE Dr Cheikh Oumar ANNE, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Senegal;
- Vigdis Cristofoli, Education Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Norway to the African Union;
- Mamusu P. Komeh-Massaquoi, Deputy Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Sierra Leone;
Participants:
- Education Experts from African Union Member States Ministries of Education and Gender
- Development Partners
- Civil Society Organisations
The objectives of the Expert Meeting are to:
- Assess learning losses and their impacts, especially on girls, in the AU Member States;
- Share teachers’ experiences on their well-being and design distance classes during school closures;
- Share Member States' experiences on Learning Recovery, such as catch-up strategies;
- Outline AU/CIEFFA's initiatives in support of Learning Recovery for girls and young women;
- Identify strategies for teacher training and curriculum development leveraging existing technology.
Overview
AU/CIEFFA in collaboration with the Republic of Senegal is convening an Education Experts Meeting from the 21st -23rd June 2022 in Dakar, Senegal under the theme “Assessing learning losses to embrace learning recovery for African girls”.
Africa, together with the rest of the world, marked two years of COVID-19-related disruptions to global education in March 2022 amidst reports indicating an expected rise in Learning Poverty from 53% before COVID-19 to 70% as a result of school closures and the inconsistent quality and effectiveness of remote learning (UNESCO, 2021).
While the AU Member States commendably introduced remote learning modalities to ensure continuity of learning to complement face-to-face classroom interaction, there were pockets of the learning population which were left out from these initiatives.
The pandemic-related school disruptions exacerbated existing gender issues in the education systems leaving girls’ and young women at an increased risk of gender-based violence, child labour, early pregnancy and marriages leading to girls facing more learning losses than boys.
One major worldwide lesson learnt from this crisis, in particular for Africa, is that education systems have come to realize how fragile they have been before and during the pandemic, with the emergence of severe learning effects.
As such, the AU/CIEFFA is organizing this meeting to facilitate the sharing of best practices and the development of tangible, actionable recovery strategies that ensure African girls return and stay in school.
Journalists wishing to attend and cover the event are invited to write to MarindireA@africa-union.org and register their intent to cover the meeting.
For further information please contact:
Ms. Anoziva Marindire, Communications Officer | African Union CIEFFA | African Union Commission | Tel: +226 25 37 61 55 | E-mail: MarindireA@african-union.org| Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Mr Boubakar Yougbare, Programmes Officer | African Union CIEFFA | African Union Commission | Tel: +226 25 37 61 55 | Email: BoubakarY@africa-union.org | Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
