The United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has received a $57 million financial and in-kind contribution from Airtel Africa to help accelerate the rollout of digital learning across 13 African countries.
UNICEF said that learners in Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia will benefit from the contribution.
Airtel Africa made the contribution to ‘Reimagine Education’, a global initiative launched by UNICEF in 2020 for public and private sector investment in digital learning, as an essential service for every child and young person across the world.
The contribution, UNICEF said in a statement, will help connect schools to the internet, ensure equal access to quality digital learning and free access to learning platforms, particularly for the most vulnerable children.
‘Hundreds of millions of children in Africa have seen their education disrupted or put on hold because of the [Covid-19] pandemic’, UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said in the statement.
‘By championing digital education for children in Africa, this partnership with Airtel Africa will help put children’s learning back on track’.
Data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics shows that almost 60 percent of youths between the ages of 15 and 17 in sub-Saharan Africa are not in school.
Similarly, data from the Brookings Institution shows that Africa has the world’s lowest secondary school enrolment rates, with just 28 percent of youths enrolled in secondary schools.
‘The programme will call on technology and expertise, in addition to direct financial support, to connect schools and communities to the internet, enable free access to online educational content for learners’, the UNICEF statement read.
‘It will also provide vital data insights to inform UNICEF’s work to scale up digital learning and help ensure it is sustainable and meets students’ needs across Africa’.
Speaking on this partnership with UNICEF, the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, Olusegun Ogunsanya, said, ‘We are excited to be working with UNICEF to advance the education agenda on the continent through facilitating connectivity and online access to play a role in driving change.
‘As a business, we have focused on education as a key area of our corporate social responsibility, and we are delighted that this partnership with UNICEF will enable us to accelerate results’.
Source: UNICEF
Photo source: UNICEF/UN0536006/Dejongh
