Education and Training

What's on this page?

On this page you will find information on NEPAD's work in the area of education and training, including aims and objectives and achievements to date.

Aims and objectives

Africa continues to face significant challenges in the area of education. Among these are low enrolments and high drop-out rates in primary and secondary schools, gender disparity, poor early childhood care and education, shortages of textbooks and other learning materials, poor educational infrastructure and environments, and weak higher education systems.

The objectives of the education and training programme include:
- Ensuring that all children of school age are in primary schools by 2015;
- Promoting gender equality in primary and secondary schools;
- Keeping teachers and learners HIV/AIDS free and providing support for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS;
- Promoting open and distance education for teacher development and capacity building in the public sector; and
- Modernising education and assisting in the reconstruction of education infrastructure in post-conflict environments.

What progress has been made so far?

NEPAD's list of achievements in the area of education and training are numerous and include:

NEPAD Africa Day Celebrations
The 1st NEPAD Africa Day Celebrations were hosted under the theme of "Unifying Africa through Education and Culture" in mid-2009. The celebrations culminated in the adoption of a legacy project which aims to promote indigenous musical and literacy arts. The project encourages research, documentation and publication of indigenous approaches to arts, literacy and development.

Human resource development for nurses and midwives in Africa
Another achievement is the training of nurses and midwives project. The project promotes human resource development in the area of nursing and midwifery and a number of students have been able to complete master's degree programmes and acquire work experience in this field. The Chinese Government also pledged a sum of US$1.5 million for further training of nurses at a master's degree level in three countries within the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). The project was also awarded the Spirit of Philanthropy Award from "Sigma Theta ta International" in the United States of America.

Who is leading the programme?

Advisor: Prof. Mzobz Mboya
Email: mzobanzim@nepad.org
Tel: +27 (0)00 256 3647