KIGALI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Wednesday called on African economies to allocate more investments in quality education system in order to drive the continent's social and economic growth.
He made the call while speaking at the opening of the continental conference on enhancing quality tertiary education across Africa in the Rwandan Capital Kigali.
Rwanda hosted the forum from July 5 to July 6, dubbed: "Mobilizing African Intellectuals towards Quality Tertiary Education."
It is organized under the auspices of the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A) to deliberate practical actions, explore solutions and build consensual approaches relevant to SDG implementation in tertiary education and research in Africa.
"Education requires heavy investments and returns are long term and not immediate. Governments alone cannot sustain momentum needed. We have to find innovative ways to attract resources from private sector to invest in quality education system," said Kagame.
He challenged African economies to go beyond rhetoric and invest in youth development, inclusive and equitable education that is gender sensitive.
"Our responsibility is to create the right conditions for delivering the 21st century education that African youth deserve. More efforts are needed to give technical education its right value so that it contributes to Africa's transformation," the Rwandan leader said.
According to Jeffrey D. Sachs, director, Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Earth Institute, for Africa to achieve sustainable economic and social growth, quality education system must be given a priority.
"In many African emerging economies, jobs go unfilled because the local labor force lacks the needed education and experience to perform them. The quality of education and skills graduates bring to the market matter a lot in the globalized economy," he said.
The meeting has attracted more than 300 intellectuals and scholars from all over Africa and beyond including heads of academic affairs, and other representatives of African academic networks, councils and research centers.
For Africa to compete on the global stage, as well as for its countries to meet the SDGs and African Union's Agenda 2063, the quality of higher education across the continent is in urgent need of improvement, according to Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa authority. Enditem
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