ADDIS ABABA 

Conflicts and disasters in Africa have destroyed infrastructure and left an estimated 25 million girls, boys and women without education in 2018 alone, according to Sarah Anyang Agbor, African Union (AU) commissioner for human resources, science and technology.

Agbor made the assertion at a high-level dialogue on gender education and protection of schools in humanitarian settings, which convened Tuesday under the auspices of the AU Commission and in collaboration with Save the Children, an international NGO.

According to Agbor, conflicts in different parts of Africa -- including South Sudan, Chad, Somalia and the Sahel region, among others -- represent the major causes of declining education rates among African youth.

She said that Tuesday’s dialogue session had tackled means of ensuring safe learning environments for girls and boys in times of crisis.

According to Norwegian International Development Minister Dag-Inge Ulstein, a staggering 262 million children in Africa currently lack access to education as a direct result of conflict and crises.

African education and defense ministers, representatives of international development agencies, and AU Commission officials all attended Tuesday’s dialogue session, in which participants discussed means of improving access to education, especially for internally-displaced persons (IDPs), refugees and returnees.

“Although more children and young people are going to school than ever, the vision of a quality education as set out in the [UN’s] sustainable development goals is still a distant dream for millions,” Dag-Inge Ulstein said.

He added that the number of Africa’s displaced people was estimated at some 87 million in late 2017, “the highest level since the end of the Second World War”.

According to the Norwegian official, refugees, IDPs and refugees all have extremely limited chances of obtaining a viable education.

“At least four million refugee children [in Africa] were out of school in 2017,” he said.

According to estimates, Africa is currently home to some six million IDPs.