There is need to bridge education aid for Africa – UNESCO

More than $8 billion of aid is needed yearly to supplement Africa's spending on education to improve quality and enhance access, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said on Monday.
Currently, about $1.5 billion of aid goes into education in Africa.
Briefing the press ahead of the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which begins in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Nicholas Burnett, Assistant Director General for Education, said the huge aid gap did not augur well for progress in the education sector.

"We are still a long way from getting the needed resources but I believe when donors begin to coordinate their programmes and avoid duplication, we should be able to get there," he said.
The Sept. 2-4 conference in Accra, which will bring together more than 100 donor and recipient states, aims to achieve more effective use of the more than $100 billion in development aid that is channelled to countries every year.

More than $30 billion of this goes to Africa, the poorest continent.

The consultations will also take stock of progress made in implementing Paris Declaration (PD) commitments, identify bottlenecks and challenges, and determine the needed actions to make aid more effective.

Mr Burnett said although significant progress had been made on the continent in education enrolment, it had not been matched by improvement in quality.

"It is estimated that 10 percent of children worldwide are out of school and Africa alone accounts for half the number," he said.

"Besides, the pupil-teacher ratio has gone worst. About four million teachers need to be trained between now and 2015 to ensure the average of 40 students per teacher".
Burnett said UNESCO's main concern on aid effectiveness was how to increase the level of donor inflows and the use of such resources effectively to facilitate the provision of quality education.