African Union Charts Bold Course for Africa’s Education and Skills Future at AAU General Conference

At the Association of African Universities’ 16th General Conference in Rabat, Morocco, the African Union Commission, represented by Chigozie Emmanuel Okonkwo, unveiled two landmark frameworks—the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) 2026–2035 and the African Continental TVET Strategy 2025–2034. The session highlighted how these strategies aim to redefine Africa’s educational and skills landscape, tackling systemic challenges and fostering human capital development essential for the continent’s sustainable growth. 

Plenary Session III of AAU’s 16th Quadrennial General Conference in Rabat, Morocco, spotlighted education as the cornerstone of Africa’s sustainable future. With the African Union Commission’s Chigozie Emmanuel Okonkwo delivering a compelling presentation, participants were introduced to the ambitious Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) 2026–2035 and the African Continental Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Strategy 2025–2034. Together, these robust frameworks chart a transformative path to empower Africa’s human capital for prosperity, equity, and innovation. 

CESA 2026–2035: A Vision for Inclusive, Future-Ready Education

Building on the gains and lessons of its predecessor (CESA 2016–2025), the new strategy emphasizes that education is not a privilege for select few Africans but a fundamental human right for all. It identifies key pillars such as skills acquisition, socio-economic development, and labour market alignment as critical levers for individual and collective prosperity. 

This updated CESA framework prioritizes teachers’ central role, effective school leadership, lifelong learning, digitalization, artificial intelligence integration, and education system resilience to address contemporary challenges and explore opportunities. “Investing in education is not merely a moral imperative; it is a smart economic and social strategy,” Okonkwo stressed, linking education to lower mortality rates, improved health outcomes, women’s empowerment, and increased earning potential. 

The new CESA’s overarching goal is to build an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa driven by African citizens. The strategy directly responds to the persistent burning issues in African HE, such as gender disparities, low funding, low enrolment, low levels of foundational skills, and low completion rates across educational levels. To enable it to achieve its 20 objectives, the strategy has been structured around six strategic areas. 

1. Resources and Enabling Environment, which emphasizes evidence-based policies, robust governance, sustainable funding, strong partnerships, up-to-date curricular, digitalization and greening, and expanded infrastructure. 
2. Teachers, Educators, and Caregivers, aiming to improve teacher policies, enhance education and professional development, upgrade the attractiveness of the teaching profession, and increase investment in school leadership, particularly for female leaders. 
3. Basic Education, which seeks to ensure cost effective approaches to early childhood development and foundational learning, investment in emotional skills, and promotion of 21-st century labour market skills, including ICT, AI, and STEAM. 
4. Higher Education and TVET, focusing on strengthening links between TVET and the labour market, expanding access and quality of HE, and incentivizing research. 
5. Second Chance Programmes and Lifelong Learning aims to expand opportunities for out-of-school children, adult-literacy campaigns, and support for lifelong learning. 
6. Gender Equity and Inclusion seeks to promote gender equality in and through education, reduce the cost of schooling for equity, and ensure inclusiveness of vulnerable groups. 

These six strategic areas—from basic to higher education to lifelong learning—are designed to be interconnected and mutually reinforcing to provide a holistic educational framework and create a resilient and inclusive African education ecosystem, ensuring that all its critical areas are addressed in a coordinated fashion. 

African Continental TVET Strategy: Skills for Prosperity and Inclusion

In a paradigm shift, the new TVET Strategy expands beyond youth employability to include all Africans—women, migrants, rural populations, informal workers, displaced people, and people with disabilities—and empower them to level up. Titled “Sustainable Development, Social Justice and Employability for All,” the strategy aligns with AU’s Agenda 2063 and UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, seeking to cultivate a globally competitive and innovative African workforce. 

Recognizing the transformative impact of emerging dynamics, such as technology advancements, climate shifts, and demographic changes, the strategy proactively addresses critical TVET sector challenges, including underfunding, gender gaps, skills mismatches, low enrolment, weak institutional systems, poor perception of TVET programmes, and lack of a robust quality assurance mechanism. It also considers the importance of people’s mental health and well-being in the workplace.  

Its four transformation pillars—policy governance and finance, quality and inclusion, partnerships, and resource sharing—work in tandem with three guiding principles to reposition TVET as a powerful engine for Africa’s development. These guiding principles work synergistically to create a comprehensive framework, harnessing the full potential of technical and vocational education and training across the continent as a powerful engine for development. 

Calls to Action: From Vision to Local Impact

The session’s panellists, including AAU’s Secretary General, Prof. Olusola Oyewole, called on African higher education institutions (HEIs) and stakeholders to adopt and adapt these policies within their unique contexts. They urged participants to access the frameworks via SDG forums and AAU’s website, ratify the Addis Convention, strengthen institutional data reporting, and forge partnerships for coordinated action. 

Closing the session, Prof. Oyewole commended the African Union Commission for its leadership in shaping a comprehensive educational roadmap for the continent. He also expressed his profound pride in partnering the AU Commission on CESA’s development and implementation to drive comprehensive education in Africa. Celebrating their active participation and significant contributions to the session in particular and Africa’s higher education landscape in general, Prof. Oyewole adorned the panellists with AAU-branded regalia. 

The unveiling of CESA 2026–2035 and the African Continental TVET Strategy 2025–2034 marks a defining moment in Africa’s education journey. As Prof. Oyewole noted, their success depends on collective ownership and implementation by African institutions and governments. With bold strategies and unified action, Africa can transform its education systems into engines of innovation, inclusion, and sustainable development—bringing to life the vision of “The Africa We Want.”