COVID-19: An Unprecedented Crash Test For African Education Systems

Maintaining quality education for all despite the health crisis caused by COVID-19 has been a considerable challenge for all education systems. All around the world, schools closed almost overnight. 1.6 billion students, 300 million of them in Africa, were left with no school to attend. Teachers and senior ministry of education officials had to ensure continuity of education at short notice.

In spite of this difficult context, all countries in sub-Saharan Africa succeeded relatively quickly in setting up various alternatives to traditional in-class teaching. A recent note by IIEP-UNESCO Dakar, based on a survey in 34 sub-Saharan African countries on distance education in the context of COVID-19, presents their successes, limitations, and prospects in order to capitalize on the lessons of this unprecedented crash test…………………………………………………………………………..