Every year, Africa Day is celebrated on the 25th May. Just like every other year, this year’s Africa day was celebrated by Africans, institutions, governments, across the globe with the theme: “Education Fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality and relevant learning in Africa”.
Education, in the words of Nelson Mandela, is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world – a powerful quote which Africans can reflect on this year and beyond. African governments specifically need to prioritize education on their national agendas and ensure that the education curricula matches the ever growing and changing world – that Africans can compete on the global stage and also transform the continent with the desired knowledge and experiences.
As a network, we believe in the power of young people who also use their voices for change in one way towards impacting society – part of our mission towards starting this initiative. On Africa Day, we had two young changemakers from Africa in the persons of Grace Akubuike and Benard Semen join our Africa Day session where they shared their knowledge and insights on the theme with our audience. This was also an opportunity for our audience to interact with these changemakers about the work they were doing in their fields and dissect key challenges affecting Africa’s education systems and overall progress.
At the end of the session, our thoughts coincided with the United Nations research which showed that “Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. Such a high number of young people is an opportunity for the continent’s growth.” This means, as a continent we have the potential, the opportunity and the means, hence the time to act is NOW!
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