Transforming education financing in Africa

The African Union (AU) Year of Education in 2024 could make decisive breakthroughs to transform education systems if there is coordinated national and Pan-African action on the key forces that impact education financing: tax, debt, and austerity. While the region has made commendable progress in getting learners into school and addressing inequality in education, significant disparities persist, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the significant drop in the number of out of school children and advancement towards gender parity our research finds that approximately 38,904,483 children are out of school in Africa, with an estimated 18,846,517 of these being girls.