UNICEF – Schools for Africa

Education for every child by 2015 - especially the African continent is far from reaching the Millennium Development Goal Nr. 2.

“Schools for Africa" proves that it is possible to give even the poorest children in post-war regions and the most remote villages a chance to go to school and stay in school.

By December 2009, nearly 5 million children are benefiting from improved physical and learning environments in schools and from better teaching and learning processes and activities.

Between 2005 and December 2009, 717 schools benefited from newly constructed/rehabilitated classrooms, including good lighting and ventilation for a conducive teaching and learning environment, often also for children with disabilities; 463 schools and surrounding communities benefited from safe drinking water, thus improving children's health, while also reducing burdens of domestic work, saving time and promoting security especially for girls and women (e.g. avoiding walking long distances to fetch water etc...); 789 schools were provided with seperate toilets for girls and boys and other sanitation facilities (e.g. hand-washing), thus improving childrens' health, as well as school attendance especially for adolescent girls; 886 schools received classroom furniture, textbooks and other teaching and learning materials, including sports/play equipment; 94,774 teachers were trained in various areas such as child rights, child-centered pedagogy and learning approaches, participatory school management, life skills based education, HIV/AIDs prevention, psychosocial care and support, guidance and counselling etc.

All 6 countries have also carried out a variety of innovative interventions to transform schools into "child-friendly", including among others:

school health and nutrition services (e.g. vaccination, de-worming, hygiene education, hand-washing campaigns etc...)
life skills education (e.g HIV prevention, sports for development, school clubs and camps etc...)
special care, support and protection of orphans and vulnerable children (including scholarships, uniforms, learning materials, emergency call centers etc...)
communication activities (e.g. mobile theatre, local radio programmes led by the children themselves and aiming at community sensitization to achieve behaviour change
support to life cycle approach to education (e.g. early childhood development, post primary education, alternative basic education etc...)
capacity development of education officials (e.g planning, data collection/analysis, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation
national policy and strategy development (e.g. upstream support to mainstream child-friendly schools principles into national education systems to benefit all children within a given country like in the case of Rwanda (e.g. establishment of quality education standards, support to teacher education systems, inspection and quality assurance etc...)

UNICEF has fostered initiatives in the project villages that work jointly to give orphans and girls in particular the chance to go to school.

"No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education."

Nelson Mandela

A teacher helps two students with their lesson at the UNICEF-supported primary school in rural Murambinda Growth Point in the eastern Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe. © Giacomo Pirozzi