Each year a theme is set by the African Union to mark the day. This year’s theme is “Education for all children in Africa: the time is now”.
According to one of our partners, Unicef, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of learning poverty in the world with almost 46 million school-aged children across Eastern and Southern Africa out of school. Children who have been affected by conflict or climate-emergencies are at the “epicentre of this educational crisis”.
Education is a fundamental right, yet there are many barriers to a decent education for children in Africa. These include low household incomes, transport, hunger, poor facilities, unqualified teachers and bad governance.
“Despite all this, the children we meet in different countries are often smiling and laughing, playing with whatever is close to hand. We’ve seen toys built out of rubbish, scooters carved out of wood — including the wheels! There is ingenuity in these young minds — it is tragic to think some will never reach their full potential,” says Sulette Theron, ForAfrika’s chief photographer.
ForAfrika supports access to quality education. Together we can build better futures by enabling strong and stable educational environments.
