Saleh Fareed

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH – More than 57 million children continue to be denied the right to primary education and 4 percent of them will probably never enter a classroom, according to last reports issued by UNESCO.



This was announced during at one of the many symposiums held on the sidelines of the IDB Group Annual Meeting & the 4th Anniversary Celebration with the attendance of Dr.  Sidibe Perama, Group Vice President of the Bank's operations, and a number of the experienced and people who have knowledge in the field of education of African countries.



The participants stressed the importance that learning more than one language at an early age contributes effectively to meet many of the needs of life and has a direct impact on enhancing the competitiveness at the level of the individual and society.



They also emphasized the need to provide educational services for all, especially for children.



 In his words, Dr. Dibisy noted that the Islamic Development Bank pays the education sector the utmost importance, based on the high status enjoyed by in Islam.



Noting also that Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, President of IDB,  who has an experience of forty years, put universal education for all in the forefront of  the mind at the founding of the bank, especially in the least developed African countries.



He also noted that the Bank is one of the rare institutions that deal with basic education and the involvement of all interested in it. It also focuses on the poorer classes which deal with most of the cases of conscientious about education in schools.



Dr. Dibisy said “The bank is keen to provide quality education for all grades of education and both sexes through its various programs.” 



He reflected this challenge clearly in rural communities, as well as that of Education in Africa which do not prepare students for many professions that are required in their own countries



He also stressed that the bank is working to promote universal education in the troubled areas of Africa.



He praised both experiences in Chad and Niger in this field. He also noted that the ten states in Nigeria have applied to be formally incorporated in the dual language program.



Meanwhile, Aesha Bah Delo, former minister of pre-higher education and professional education in the Republic of Guinea and the former assistant director-General for Education in UNESCO which deals directly with the bilingual education with the President of the bank pointed out that the year of 2000 have  showed the release of the first initiative in the framework of the program to target nearly 57 million children who do not have access to education in Africa, 31 million of them female children, and 49 percent of them  have never set foot at all in schools.



According to the bank’s report it showed that West African States in particular is facing this challenge the most. There are more than 29 million children (of whom 16 million child) are not receiving education in schools, and they make up half of the children conscientious about  studying in the world. Also, 30 percent of students enrolled in schools do not complete primary school.



Professor.  Mamadou Andoje, former Minister of Basic Education and the national languages of the Republic of Senegal, has talked about the most important events experienced by education in Africa through history, starting from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Islam spread on the continent, bringing with him the Koranic schools, and through the nineteenth century when missionaries of the Christian catholic church that has brought with it religion schools,  ending with the reality of education today.



Regarding bilingual education agenda for 2015 and beyond, participants agreed on a number of tasks; including: taking into account equity; education as a fundamental right of every individual and the Bank should pursue its efforts to ensure its offered to all.