Education: Algeria committed to sharing its experience with African countries

Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf reaffirmed, Wednesday in Addis Ababa, Algeria's commitment to sharing its experience and expertise with African countries to promote the education and teaching sector.

In his speech during the work of the 44th ordinary session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU), Mr. Attaf welcomed the choice of the issue of education as the main theme of this meeting, as it presents a "major challenge to break the circle of poverty and strengthen the socio-economic development of the continent which will be home, by 2050, to 40% of the world's children (nearly a billion children and adolescents under 18 years old)."

In addition to its efforts at the national level, Algeria "is committed to sharing its experiences and exchanging them with brotherly African countries in order to promote the education and teaching sector, through scholarships and training scholarships", affirmed the minister, stressing that Algeria granted each year "more than 2,000 study scholarships to its African brothers, as well as more than 500 training scholarships".

Algeria is proud to have contributed, since its independence, to the training of no less than 65,000 African students, he added, recalling that Algeria's efforts to revive training and education manifested themselves through “the construction and renovation projects of schools, projects carried out by the Algerian Agency for International Cooperation, particularly in neighboring countries”.

The minister also highlighted Algeria's support for the Pan-African Institute of Water and Energy Sciences and Climate Change, based in Tlemcen in Algeria, which has contributed to the training of more than 644 students from 45 member countries of the African Union.

On this occasion, Mr. Attaf praised "highly" the success of this institute, which is one of the centers of the Pan-African University, welcoming the efforts of the African Union Commission as well as the support provided by the German partner and the African Development Bank.

He considered it necessary to concentrate efforts on addressing the root causes of the delay recorded on the African continent in this area, in particular "the wars and conflicts which have prevented more than 40% of the children of the Sahel from joining the schools of the school".

It is also about the lack of infrastructure, statistics showing an alarming deficiency in more than a million educational establishments, in addition to the shortage of qualified teachers, the needs of our continent being estimated to no less than 17 million additional teachers.

The work of the 44th session of the AU Executive Council takes place in anticipation of the holding of the 37th ordinary session of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the AU, scheduled for February 17 and 18, 2024 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), under the theme: “Education for an Africa adapted to the 21st century”.