Education Drives Progress
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for greater investment in education on Friday, saying African countries could use schools and skills training to drive development and overcome the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.
Speaking at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Friday, Ramaphosa co-chaired a leaders’ meeting on Sustainable Development Goal 4, which focuses on access to quality education.
“From our own country, South Africa, comes a story of optimism and hope, where education was used during apartheid as a weapon to suppress and to exploit the majority of the citizens of South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africa’s Progress
“And today, education occupies the highest spending item, close on to 24 per cent of the budget, where today school attendance has increased exponentially and where feeding of children at school now amounts to two meals a day for nine million young children on a daily basis, and where the pass rate has also increased exponentially,” he added.
Ramaphosa said South Africa’s education spending had helped children from poor and historically excluded communities reach university, technical colleges and vocational training.
“What makes all this extraordinary is that the majority of those who are passing and qualifying for university were learners from poor communities, communities that were relegated by apartheid to the backyard of the education process,” he added.
He cited Rwanda, China, India and South Africa as examples of countries where investment in education had helped rebuild societies, reduce poverty and create skilled workforces.
UNESCO Education Summit
“Education builds. It unlocks human potential. It dismantles ignorance. Every classroom and every lesson empower and transform not only their own lives but also the lives of the communities that they live in,” he said.
UNESCO says the Paris meeting is focused on education system transformation and resilience, four years after the Transforming Education Summit.
Ramaphosa is in France from July 10 to 12 for a working visit that includes UNESCO meetings and the 110th commemoration of the Battle of Delville Wood in Longueval, where South African soldiers who died during the First World War will be honoured.
PresidencyZA, via Viory.Video
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