Archbishop Tutu Launches Campaign To Improve Learning Across Africa

Picture courtesy commons.wikimedia.org

Story courtesy of This is Africa

New York, New York
Friday, September 27

Joined by a global audience of leading figures in global education, representing business, government, civil society and the international development community, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has launched the Tutudesk Campaign. The occasion was convened in partnership with the Financial Times’ This Is Africa and the Open Society Foundation.

The Campaign provides portable school desks, Tutudesks, to children in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 95 million school children do not have the benefit of a classroom desk. This shortage affects the development of literacy and overall academic performance. The Campaign has already distributed 1.3m desks in 24 countries to date, and aims to provide 20m desks to 20 million children across sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.

Marking the occasion, the Archbishop said: “We must no longer accept a child’s educational experience being prejudiced by the lack of a most basic piece of educational infrastructure – a classroom desk – so critical to their literacy development and academic performance.”
Recent strategic partners have included Ecobank, the pan-African banking giant, Canadian mining firm First Quantum Minerals Ltd and ALMA – Diocese of London. Tutudesks are an effective, low-cost, African innovation in the global effort to improve learning outcomes. The need is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is estimated that half of primary school age children could reach adolescence unable to read, write, or perform basic numeracy tasks. The region is also home to more than half of the world’s out-of-school primary-aged children.

Tutudesk Campaign Founder, Shane Immelman said: “The international launch in New York of The Desmond Tutu Tutudesk Campaign is the culmination of many years of development, contribution and strategic support by literally dozens of visionary people and organisations, led by a core group of committed individuals and aligned to the vision of our patron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This important occasion marks the commencement of the next phase of our work, the start of the global Tutudesk movement, which will see the rapid escalation of our work to scale in order to provide 20m Tutudesks to 20 million African children affected by classroom desk shortages by 2020.”

A Tutudesk is a high impact tool in helping a child to learn. Independent research has shown that the use of Tutudesks improves everything from handwriting and concentration levels, to homework delivery and motivation in class.

Welcoming the launch, British author Paul Mckenna said: “I believe education is the great equaliser. The Tutudesk project aims to help children with their education in areas where it is much needed, giving them a better start in life.”

The launch comes on the first anniversary of Education First, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s landmark initiative to improve access and learning globally. The Tutudesk Campaign represents a quick and easily implementable solution in the wider international effort to address these key priorities for global education.

Ban Ki-moon has called education the “single best investment nations can make to build prosperous, healthy and equitable societies”. Meeting these objectives is essential if sub-Saharan Africa is to avoid losing an entire generation of children.

For further information on the Tutudesk Campaign and to find out how you can get involved, please contact: Rebecca Sweetman: CEO, The Desmond Tutu Tutudesk Campaign Centre (UK), becca@tutudesk.org