– Addressing Africa’s learning crisis requires gathering, synthesizing, and spotlighting real, evidence-based, scalable practices that have shown success across diverse contexts in the continent, according to the African Union (AU).
A Validation Workshop on Scalable Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) Practices to End Learning Poverty in Africa was heldin Addis Ababa from July 22 to 23, 2025, marking a significant step forward in the collective effort to address the continent’s learning crisis and ensure that every child acquires the essential foundational skills they deserve by age 10.
The workshop brought together technical experts from 25 Member States, along with representatives from the African Union Commission, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, and other development partners aimed atvalidating the research findings constituting the mapping of scalable good practices for foundational literacy and numeracy across the continent.
On the occasion, AU’s Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (ESTI) Director Prof. Saidou Madougou stated that validating the continental Foundational Literacy and Numeracy mapping resource is an essential step toward reversing learning crisis thereby enabling African children acquires essential foundational skills.
“It seeks to gather, synthesize, and spotlight what works real, evidence-based, scalable practices that have shown success across diverse African contexts. Whether it is structured pedagogy in Uganda, mother-tongue based instruction in Ethiopia, or targeted instruction by learning level in Zambia, these are not only just case studies, but blueprints with promise for large-scale systemic change,”Prof. Saidou said.
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According to AU, an alarming 9 out of 10 children are unable to read and understand a simple sentence by the age of 10 across West, Central, East, and Southern Africa. While enrollment in primary and lower secondary education has increased significantly over the last two decades, millions of children attend school without acquiring the foundational skills they need.
This persistent learning crisis is more than an educational challenge and poses a threat to future economic prosperity, the organization stated andhighlighted the importance of enhancing joint efforts.
“This workshop is a significant step in creating a broader pathway of engagement for foundational learning and numeracy between educators, policy makers and practitioners to improve learning outcomes: learning from one another through the cross-fertilization of successes, and more importantly, taking the lead in adapting scalable solutions and embedding them into national education sector plans, policies, and programs,” UNICEF Representative to the African Union and UNECA Laila Gad (PhD) emphasized.
The outcomes of the workshop will also contribute to end learning poverty in Africa by strengthening foundational literacy and numeracy, which are the cornerstones of all further learning and skill acquisition. Foundational learning holds the most significant promise for overcoming Africa’s education challenges, laying the groundwork for lifelong learning, and empowering African children to thrive as engaged citizens and contributors to their communities and economies, according to the continental bloc.