The African Union Commission and Côte d’Ivoire have launched a national Spotlight report on foundational learning, positioning the country as a continental reference point for education reform under the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2026-2035.
The report marks a broader effort by the African Union to build Africa-owned systems for measuring and improving learning outcomes across member states, anchored in the AU’s Leveraging Education Analysis for Results Network, known as LEARN.
Released April 9 alongside the French edition of UNESCO’s 2025 continental Spotlight series on basic education completion, the report documents significant progress in Ivorian schooling.
Gross enrollment rates rose from 64% to 93% between 2000 and 2023, while primary completion rates increased by 56 percentage points since 1990, reaching 78% in 2024, according to the report.
The findings also identify a persistent gap. Roughly one-third of Ivorian students hold only minimal reading and mathematics competencies despite teacher quality and classroom materials exceeding regional averages, a result the report links to weak school leadership pipelines and limited instructional accountability.
“Every child is born to learn, but access alone is not enough,” said Côte d’Ivoire’s minister of national education, N’Guessan Koffi.
“The lessons from the report provide us with a clear roadmap, stronger school leadership, better-supported teachers, and shared accountability, from the classroom to the community,” he said.
The report calls for merit-based recruitment of school principals, career-long professional development, and governance structures that bring local education authorities and communities into school management.
Two national programs, Objectives and Performance Contracts and the National Program for the Improvement of Foundational Learning, are cited as platforms for scaling reform.
A public policy dashboard comparing national approaches to curricula, school leadership, and learning improvement will accompany the LEARN network’s ongoing work across the continent.
