Addis Ababa: The African Union, in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has officially launched a Validation Workshop on Scalable Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) Practices to combat learning poverty across Africa. This two-day event, held at the African Union Commission Headquarters, marks a pivotal moment in efforts to ensure that every child on the continent acquires essential foundational skills by the age of 10.
According to African Press Organization, the workshop has attracted technical experts from 25 Member States, along with representatives from the African Union Commission, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, and other development partners. The primary focus of the gathering is to assess and validate research findings on scalable practices for foundational literacy and numeracy across Africa.
The validation of the continental Foundational Literacy and Numeracy mapping resource is a crucial step in reversing the current educational trends. The initiative aims to collect, synthesize, and highlight effective, evidence-based practices that have proven successful in various African contexts. These practices include structured pedagogy in Uganda, mother-tongue based instruction in Ethiopia, and targeted instruction by learning level in Zambia. These examples serve not only as case studies but also as blueprints for potential large-scale systemic change, as noted by Prof. Saidou Madougou, Director of the Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation.