The Minister of State and Chief of Staff of the Presidency opened the event along with the Minister of Education and the Director of UNESCO's Regional Office in Dakar.

Participants come from all corners of society, including delegations of 18 provinces lead by the Deputy Governor. Members of the parliament , ministers and state secretaries of different sectors joined the meeting, as well as traditional authorities, religious leaders, social partners, public and private institutions, economic partners, the media, school administrators, teachers and students of different levels and educational subsystems.

Fully-fledged partners

UNESCO welcomes the initiative and commends the large number of stakeholders and the decentralized approach taken, which underlines the high political commitment to Education for All.

“Angola is rich and many national and international enterprises seek to profit from that wealth. It is in the interest of the private sector that the country develops a well-skilled workforce, as well an overall well educated population. So please do not show your commitment by just participating but become full-fledged partners in this process,” says Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office in Dakar.

Angola is one of the countries that has commited itself to accelerate progress towards Education for All goals by 2015. It was part of a first group of eight African countries that met from 20-23 March 2013 in Dakar, Senegal to develop national plans for the acceleration process.

According to UNESCO statistics, at least 31 of 44 African countries will not make it. 

Massive progress but…

The country emerged from a long and bloody civil war in 2002. Despite the challenges of destroyed infrastructures, displaced population and mines, Angola managed to triple the number of children in primary education from 2 to 6 million from 2002 to date.

During the same period the number of illiterate adults was halved, from 85 % at the time of independence in 1975 to around 30% currently, while the access to pre-primary education increased from 12% to nearly 40% since 2000.

The excellent progress in access to primary education is however marred by a low survival rate at primary level. Only a little over 30% of school children achieve primary education, which is extremely low compared with the African average of 63%.

UNESCO’s support in four areas

UNESCO is supporting the National Forum and Angola’s acceleration efforts in four areas:

a) Assistance in mobilizing different private and public partners

b) Tailor socio-educational interventions to meet the challenges of accelerating Education for All

c) Provide technical support in areas of low educational performance

d) Adjust the National Education for All efforts in Angola so it fits the acceleration mechanism established by UNESCO

Check out the current status of Angola’s Education for All efforts (in Portuguese)

The 3-day National Forum will be organized in thematic areas to deal with the 6 EFA Goals and 2 additional cross-cutting areas:

• Early Childhood Care and Education,
• Improving universal access to primary education,
• Literacy and adult education
• Lifeskills for young people and adults
• Quality of education at different educational levels
• Gender equity
• Education Management Systems
• HIV&AIDS