President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday rallied world leaders to continue investing in education by enacting supporting policies and increasing domestic resource allocation to the sector.
At the same time, the President underscored the importance of embracing digital technology and harnessing its full potential in education.
“I imagine a world where every child has access to digital technology as a tool to learn; as much as they wish and to experience the world from the comfort of their classroom or their home.
“That is why, one of my main messages throughout this campaign has been the advancement of Edtech through scaling up investments and effort towards digitizing learning,” President Kenyatta said.
The Head of State spoke in London at the end of the two-day Global Education Summit (GES) that he co-hosted with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Several world leaders attended the summit both physically and virtually among them four African Heads of State and Government.
The President said Kenya is proud to lead global efforts to deliver the resources needed to enable millions of children across the world access quality education.
“Kenya has endorsed the 2021 Call to Action on Domestic financing and actioned its recommendations by dedicating 26 percent of our national budget to the education sector. We encourage all other countries to do so while prioritising the principles of volume, equity and efficiency,” the President said.
He applauded the solidarity exhibited by countries that heeded the call to support the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and expressed confidence that the fundraiser would achieve the USD 5 billion target by 2025.
“Today, we not only raise our hands in support of education but we also walk with our heads held high, confident that we will reach our target of raising USD 5 billion for education by 2025,” President Kenyatta said.
The Kenyan said the resources raised through GPE will provide a catalytic support needed to get more than 175 million boys and girls in school, and enrol 88 million others among them 46 million girls.
Further, the President said GPE will help protect two million girls from child marriages as well as deliver on the promise of education as an important vehicle for socio-economic development.
He thanked GPE led by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard for anchoring the initiative whose ultimate goal is to strengthen education systems and improve schooling outcomes for all children across the globe.
“The GPE role remains central as we work towards rebuilding and strengthening education systems globally, re-imagine education, build on lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, strengthen the quality of our education systems and strive to achieve inclusiveness in access to education,” the President noted.
In his address, PM Johnson said education is the panacea for the challenges facing the world.
“By educating young people, you help to end all things that ignorance and prejudice help to create. So, you deal with terrorism, with war, extremism and you also help people to tackle climate change. So, we are proud of the achievement of this GPE,” the UK Premier said.
The Prime Minister confirmed the UK Government’s donation of 430 million Sterling Pounds to GPE’s “Raise Your Hand” campaign whose target is to raise USD 5 billion by 2025.
On the sidelines, President Kenyatta held bilateral talks with his African counterparts attending GES including Akufo-Addo (Ghana), Chakwera (Malawi), Gnassingbé (Togo) and Buhari (Nigeria) as well as the GPE Chair Julia Gillard.
