Time LIVE: UN in bid to boost education in Africa
By Prega Govender
GOING DOWNHILL: A reader suggests the reasons for the poor literacy rate can be blamed in part on teachers who are poorly trained.
Irina Bokova, the new director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), said that assisting Africa would be her top priority.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times in Doha, Qatar, where she was one of the speakers at a world summit on innovation in education, Bokova said Africa was "lagging behind" when it came to the millennium development goals in education.
"Africa is a priority in education, science, gender equality and culture. We think that Africa and, especially countries in sub-Saharan Africa, are the most vulnerable and need the most assistance," she said.
But Bokova stressed that Unesco was not a development aid agency, but rather an organisation responsible for policy formulation, bench-marking, providing statistics and mobilising other UN agencies and financial institutions to implement projects.
Teacher shortages were dire as the continent needed one million more newly qualified teachers over the next few years.
Bokova described the teacher shortages as well as the quality of education offered in schools across the continent as "huge problems".
Another priority, she claims, was the need to include the teaching of science in the school curriculum, especially in secondary schools.
She said the millennium goal of having every child enrolled in school by 2015 would also not be achieved.
