NAIROBI, April 26 (Xinhua) -- African governments should explore innovative financing schemes to help expand access to learning facilities to under-privileged children and youth, campaigners said on Thursday during the Pan African Education Conference taking place in Nairobi.
Makha Ndao, a senior policy expert with Association for Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), said the new funding options must be explored to support literacy and skills development programs in Africa.
"Financing education sector in Africa should be a priority in the light of shrinking external support," Ndao said.
"We must pay attention to domestic resources mobilization, improve governance and accountability to ensure funds earmarked for education are spent prudently," he added.
Ndao revealed that a continental strategy to boost financing in the education sector has been endorsed by national governments, regional blocs and continental lending agencies.
"We have discussed the possibility of setting up an African Education Fund (AED) whose contributions will come from governments, economic blocs and lending institutions," said Ndao.
He added that a home-grown approach is required to bridge financing gaps in Africa's education sector that has undermined the quest to eliminate the continent's high levels of illiteracy.
The UN contends that Africa requires an additional 40 billion U.S. dollars to achieve the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) on education by 2030.
Campaigners urged African governments to address policy and regulatory bottlenecks that are to blame for under-financing in the education sector.
"We need to reform outdated policies in order to facilitate market based investments in our education sectors," said Kisa Kumwenda, the coordinator of Malawi's civil society education coalition.
He proposed the establishment of an education levy and harnessing of diasporas remittances to support modernization of learning facilities and training of tutors.
The majority of African countries are yet to meet the global target of allocating 15 percent of their GDP to education sector thanks to competing demands and minimal private sector engagement.
Amina Issa, a Mozambican gender and education campaigner, proposed tax incentives for investors coupled with robust pubic private partnerships to tackle under-financing in the education sector.
"Besides encouraging private sector investments in education, we should also strengthen governance systems to curb pilferage of public coffers earmarked for development of new learning infrastructure," said Issa.
She noted that adequate financing in the education sector will have spin-off effects that include economic growth, improved health indicators and social cohesion.
