Africa’s teachers tell us about the progress of education in their country, and what they see as the biggest challenges and hopes for African teachers and students. Education features prominently in the millennium development goals, and MDG2 aims to ensure that all children complete a full course of primary education, measured by enrolment, the proportion who reach the last grade, and literacy rates for those aged 15-24.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0999/Kate Holt
Somali children waiting to register for food and other aid in the Dagahaley refugee camp in North Eastern Province, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The camp is among three that comprise the Dadaab camps, located on the outskirts of the town of Dadaab in Garissa District. In Kenya, 1.7 million children have been affected by the drought, including 220,000 Somali refugee children in the north-eastern town of Dadaab.

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, USA, 12 September 2011 – As the emergency escalates throughout the Horn of Africa, the numbers of those in crisis continue to grow. Currently, 13.3 million people in the region are in need of humanitarian assistance. Somalia is the worst-affected country, with more than 750,000 people at risk of death.

Liberian host communities support education for Ivorian refugee children from UNICEF: Back on Track on Vimeo.

Creating opportunities from crisis

By Priyanka Pruthi

GRAND GEDEH, Liberia, 20 July – In a nation still recovering from a ruinous civil war – a place where many people have no access to electricity, safe water or health care – hundreds of communities have opened their doors to refugees from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.

Eight months after a political crisis erupted in that country, more than 150,000 Ivorians remain in Liberia. Most of them are being hosted by families in remote villages dotting the Liberia-Côte d’Ivoire border.

Education: an enduring casualty of war from UNICEF: Back on Track on Vimeo.

In the Kailahun district of Sierra Leone, burned out buildings and bullet holes serve as a constant reminder of a turbulent and horrific past. This remote eastern border area was one of hardest hit by Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war.

© UNICEF/2008/Shankar
Co-author of ‘Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children’ Grace Akallo (left ); and spokesperson for War Child Holland Kon Kelei (front)recording the 'Recovery through education'; podcast at UN Radio studios.

NEW YORK, USA- Ishmael Beah, Grace Akallo and Kon Kelei know the consequences of war. All three have lived through and participated in conflict in their native countries of Sierra Leone, Uganda and Sudan.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0460/Adam DeanA boy raises his hand, seated with fellow students in a large temporary classroom at a camp for people who have been displaced by the earthquake, in the city of Mianyang in Sichuan Province. The city is in one of the worst-affected parts of the province

In China, on 12 May 2008, a massive earthquake struck Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, damaging more than 12,000 schools – 40 per cent of all schools in the province – and another 6,500 schools in neighbouring Gansu Province. It is estimated that thousands of children died.