AFRICAN leaders have expressed their commitment to ensure the continent retains human capital and discourage brain drain.
They made commitments during the African Human Capital Heads of State Summit held at Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam, on Wednesday.
In the summit discussion panel that involved President Samia Suluhu Hassan and various leaders from African countries, the leaders discussed ways of improving education sector, so as to invest in human capital in the continent
They agreed that the African governments should provide good education environment for young people to excel and work in their home countries, instead of going to search for better life in other continents.
The President of Sierra Leone, Mr Julius Maada Bio said as the world entres the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the governments in Africa ought to allocate funding to invest in education sector, so as to improve the learning environment.
This, he said, will encourage all people to get education, stay and work in their respective countries, instead of going to Europe, Asia and America to seek employment.
He unveiled that his government has established an integrated system of free education, so that all children can get education regardless of their family statuses, including disability and the poverty states.
President Bio noted that women have been encouraged to entre into various fields, including engineering, to discard the notion that a woman’s task is strictly confined to domestic work.
“In Sierra Leone, we have been advising parents to send girl children to school and they have been doing good in classes than boys…on average, out of 12 students who pass exams, eight are female students,” he said.
He further noted that in order to avoid the problem of girls not being able to attend classes because of menstrual period, his government in collaboration with Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) has been providing female towels for female students.
“We have started a system for female students who got pregnant to return to school immediately after giving birth and they are also doing wonders,” he said.
Moreover, he said in order to further improve education, the government has initiated a procedure to provide free books and other educational materials to public and private schools and so far, has distributed books to 12,000 schools across the country.
On her side, the Vice-President of Benin, Ms Mariam Chabi Talata, said that her country has a dream to introduce itself to the whole world, by investing in human capital through integrated vocational education.
She said since 2019 the government made reforms in the education system by among others establishing more higher learning institutions. The move, she said, has seen the surge in numbers of university graduates.
“The government deregistered colleges that lacked the needed standards and invested in the best teachers colleges to get qualified teachers in efforts to transform the education system,” Ms Talata said.
She added that her government improved sanitation environmental in schools to enable students to study in a friendly environment by building modern toilets.
“In collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the government has been providing support of books to students in schools for them to get better education,” she noted
Kingdom of Eswatini’s Prime Minister, Mr Cleopas Dlamini, noted that by realising the difference between the number of years people spend in schools and skills they get, his government has prioritised technology in education, through the national development plan 2020 – 2027.
He said that government provides free primary education and plans to make it a compulsory education.
It has also invested more in technical colleges, so that even those who do not get primary and secondary education can get practical education and be able to employ themselves for their own development and nation as a whole.
