Uhuru Kenyatta, PM Boris to co-chair global education summit this July

President Uhuru Kenyatta arrives at Westlands Primary School where he held a virtual meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[PSCU]

President Uhuru Kenyatta and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson are set to co-chair the global education summit this July.

 The summit to held on between July 28 and 29 in London aims to raise $5 billion (Sh535b) over the next five years to support Global Partnership for Education (GPE) work to get 175 million more children into quality education in 87 lower and middle-income countries.

The announcement was made on Thursday after the head of state and Boris undertook a joint virtual visit to Kenyan and British schools to urge world leaders to invest in education

 The virtual event brought together students from Westlands Primary school in Nairobi and Cleves Cross Primary School in County Durham.

The two leaders took part in a live classroom link-up with schoolchildren at the two schools. 

The joint visit, also attended by the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Jane Marriott, and Cabinet Secretary for Education, Professor George Magoha.

The partnership is in line with the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms project.

The UK is one of the largest donors to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), contributing 13 per cent of the GPE income since 2005.

Kenya has been the largest beneficiary, receiving Sh10.9 billion to date.

“Supporting girls to get 12 years of quality education is one of the smartest investments we can make as the world recovers from Covid-19. Otherwise, we risk creating a lost pandemic generation,” Boris said.

 He said across the world there is a vast untapped resource – girls whose education has been cut short or denied altogether, who could be leading efforts to pull their communities out of poverty.

 “I’m going to be working throughout the UK’s G7 presidency to ensure leaders invest in those girls and boost children’s life chances around the world,” he said.

 His sentiments were echoed by High Commissioner  Jane Mariot who said the two countries signed a partnership agreement last year.

“The Global Education Summit we are jointly hosting will make sure all young people have the opportunity to learn. I congratulate the government, school leadership, teachers, students and all partners for the great work they are doing to make sure every child gets a quality education,” she said.