Forty-two African governments have agreed on a continent-wide plan to tackle learning poverty by 2035, committing to increase domestic education funding, strengthen accountability and expand the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms as countries seek to improve literacy and numeracy among young learners.
The commitments were adopted at the close of the third Africa Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX2026) in Lilongwe, where education ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries and senior officials met for three days to review progress since the previous summit in Kigali in 2024.
Hosted by the Government of Malawi, the meeting endorsed a shared roadmap aimed at ensuring African children can read with comprehension, perform basic mathematics and develop critical thinking skills.
The agreement comes as much of sub-Saharan Africa continues to grapple with a severe learning crisis. Education officials said up to nine in ten 10-year-olds across the region are unable to read and understand a simple sentence or perform basic mathematical tasks.
Malawi’s Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Bright Msaka, urged governments to move beyond commitments and focus on implementation.
“This crisis is not a failure of children’s intellect. It is a gap in how systems deliver,” Msaka said.
He added that “We are not asking for more declarations. We are waiting to return to our capitals to chart, review and execute with fidelity.”
Delegates adopted six priority areas to guide reforms, including strengthening political leadership over education, creating dedicated budget lines for foundational learning, improving data systems and accountability, expanding evidence-based teaching methods through artificial intelligence and education technology, improving coordination among development partners and increasing access for vulnerable and marginalized children.
Countries also agreed to strengthen monitoring mechanisms to measure progress before the next FLEX summit in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in 2028.
One of the conference’s most direct appeals came from pupils at Malawi’s Nkwiji Primary School, who urged leaders to provide learning materials in languages children understand, improve teacher training, make schools more resilient to climate-related disruptions and ensure children with disabilities have equal access to education.
“Do not just exchange ideas; exchange promises,” the pupils told delegates. “Act for us; act with us to end learning poverty together.”
Several governments highlighted reforms they said were already improving learning outcomes.
Tanzania reported that its MEWAKA teacher coaching programme increased reading proficiency from 64% in 2021 to 90% in 2025. Nigeria said it had expanded its Teaching at the Right Level programme to about 12,000 schools, while Malawi said its Building Education Foundations through Innovation and Technology (BEFIT) programme had reached nearly 890,000 learners and trained around 17,900 teachers.
Delegates cautioned, however, that enrolment figures alone should not be used to measure success without corresponding improvements in learning outcomes.
Financing featured prominently during the summit as governments pledged to increase domestic investment despite mounting fiscal pressures.
Sierra Leone said it now allocates 21% of national expenditure to education, while The Gambia has set aside one-quarter of its education budget specifically for foundational learning.
Development partners also announced new funding commitments as a new initiative known as the Foundational Learning Initiative for Government-Led Transformation (FLIGHT) was launched with USD35 million in philanthropic funding to support government-led education reforms.
The Global Partnership for Education pledged an additional USD37 million for education programmes in Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, while the World Bank reaffirmed support through its USD1.5 billion AIM4Learning programme, part of its broader USD16 billion education investment portfolio across Africa.
Albert Nsengiyumva, executive secretary of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), said increased funding alone would not solve the learning crisis.
“Countries are going through very tough fiscal pressure, but it is not just about getting resources,” he said. “It is how we use those resources that matters. It is how we build continuity and embed accountability into our systems so that our children can be proud of their countries.”
FLEX was established in 2023 as a platform for African governments to exchange evidence and best practices on improving foundational literacy and numeracy. This year’s summit was held under the theme, “From Commitments to Results: Delivering Foundational Learning at Scale.”
Organisers said implementation of the 2035 targets will be tracked through quarterly meetings of the Africa Foundational Learning Ministerial Coalition ahead of the next summit in Abidjan in 2028.
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