
A classroom in Madagascar
WASHINGTON D.C./TOKYO, January 24, 2025 – The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) welcomed a pledge of over US$5.4 million from Japan made today on the International Day of Education to accelerate children’s access to education in sub-Saharan Africa.
The pledge includes $4 million for GPE’s Tech4Ed initiative to improve access to education and learning in sub-Saharan Africa through technology as well as $1.45 million for Madagascar.
“Technology is increasingly seen as an accelerator for learning, particularly for vulnerable children living in hard-to-reach areas,” said Laura Frigenti, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education. “Japan has been a committed partner in our efforts to increase access to education as an essential pillar of sustainable development. Japan’s steadfast support will help us tackle the education crisis in sub-Saharan Africa by deploying technological tools that are adapted to countries’ needs and capacity.”
In the wake of Covid-19, 107 million children, adolescents and youth were out of school in Africa, while an estimated 7 in 10 of all children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read a simple text by age 10. Girls are particularly disadvantaged; sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world not to have achieved gender parity in enrollment at any level in the education system.
While technology holds great promise to transform education in Africa and beyond, this opportunity comes with the duty to ensure equitable access to safe digital learning tools that improve learning for every child.
With support from committed partners, including Japan, GPE is well positioned to help partner countries apply a system approach to the use of technology in education, focusing on children facing the toughest circumstances. Overall, GPE has invested over $110 million in partner countries to leverage technology for education management, teaching and learning. Since 2002, GPE has raised more than $11 billion for education, of which $6b billion to support education in 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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About the Global Partnership for Education
GPE is a shared commitment to ending the world’s learning crisis. We mobilize partners and funds to support nearly 90 lower-income countries to transform their education systems so that every girl and boy can get the quality education they need to unlock their full potential and contribute to building a better world.
Media contact
Tamara Kummer, GPE Head of Communications, @email,
Tel: + 33 7 82 26 07 18

A classroom in Madagascar