Marking the Day of the African Child, a strategic event was organized today by the AU Commission’s Directorate of Education, Science, Innovation and Technology and UNESCO.
The event recalled the countries’ collective commitment to reduce the out-of-school population in Africa by 58 million by 2030. This is a continental target that represents the aggregation of national SDG 4 targets. While it does not represent a commitment to universal schooling, it reflects a powerful drive towards inclusion.
But the challenge is large – and, in fact, larger than previously thought. This is a key conclusion of the 2025 SDG 4 Scorecard, the annual publication that takes stock of countries’ progress towards their national targets, which – this year – has focused on the out-of-school rate. The Scorecard provides updated out-of-school estimates by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report.
SDG 4 benchmarking is the largest-ever country-led education target-setting exercise. To date, 74% of African countries have submitted national targets for at least some of the eight SDG 4 benchmark indicators, including the out-of-school rate. This is just below the global average of 80%. These targets demonstrate ownership of the agenda and strong political will to contribute towards the achievement of the global goal. This process links the national, continental and global education agendas.
The Day of the African Child is an annual observance, with a theme set by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and adopted continentally by the AU. This year it focuses on ‘Planning and budgeting for children’s rights: progress since 2010’. Activities around this day stress the need to address the educational challenges faced by African children and reinforces the commitment to ensuring their right to quality learning, because every child is truly #BorntoLearn.
To mark the occasion, a new brochure on Africa based on the 2025 SDG 4 Scorecard, has been released by the UIS and GEM Report. The Scorecard is a country-owned tool, as it tracks progress on the education commitments countries have made – first and foremost to their people. It has been aligned with the monitoring framework of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), an alignment intended to continue in the next decade, as the upcoming strategy for 2026-2035 develops its monitoring framework. It serves as a critical tool both for fostering accountability and for helping countries improve the targets they set in their national education sector plans.
This year’s edition focuses on the out-of-school rate, one of the eight benchmark indicators. According to these latest estimates, there were 118 million children, adolescents and youth in Africa in 2023. The analysis shows that, despite commitments, out-of-school numbers have been increasing since 2010. Among children of primary school age, the out-of-school population fell from 49 million in 2000 to 42 million in 2015 but has increased to 44 million in 2023. Among youth of upper secondary school age, the out-of-school population has been increasing throughout: from 32 million in 2000 to 33 million in 2015 and 41 million in 2023.
Out-of-school population in Africa, 2000–2023
Beyond what administrative school records and household responses reveal, conflict in many parts of Africa prevents the systematic collection of comparable education data. Using multiple external evidence, mainly from humanitarian agencies, it is in fact estimated that at least 10 million more children, adolescents and youth are out of school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan and, especially, Sudan, where the estimated out-of-school of 6.6 million may in fact be underestimated by 4.8 million. A first estimate is also made for Somala, where the out-of-school population is estimated to be 3.7 million.
Interventions at the event from the ministers of Rwanda and Sierra Leone, two countries that have bucked the slowing trend, spoke to the importance of political leadership and continued investments in national institutional and data system capacity to translate these commitments into tangible results. UNESCO emphasizes the need to address persistent data gaps, and to better align ambitious but feasible benchmarks with financing and implementation mechanisms.
