Enhancing Quality Education: Key Strategies to Keep Children and Youth in School

It is believed that without additional measures, by 2030:

- 84 Million Children and Youth will be out of School.

- 300 Million students will lack basic numeracy/literacy skills.

- Only 1 in 6 countries will achieve Universal Secondary School completion target. 

As an educator in this world, this worries me because, despite my efforts to achieve quality education, I do not know if any of the children I am teaching now or in the next three years will be among the 84 million who will be out of school. Many factors contribute to children and youth being out of school, and while I could list many, this article will focus on what keeps children and youth in school, emphasizing quality education as a crucial element in achieving Sustainable Development Goal #4.

Africa is a good continent, but it is regarded as one of the continents with high illiteracy rate, As of 2024, the illiteracy rate in Sub-Saharan Africa remains high, with around 32% of adults aged 15 and older unable to read or write. This is significantly higher compared to other regions such as South Asia (around 26%) and Latin America (5%). Contributing factors include lack of access to quality education and large numbers of children out of school, which heightens the challenge of reducing illiteracy across the continent. The question is, what should be done to achieve quality education? 

To be continued………..

Written by Oliver Kasito Jnr