Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦

President of the African National Congress. President of the Republic of South Africa. Chair of the African Union 2020.

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

Dear Fellow South African,

Our country’s ambition to be a leading digital investment destination is being recognised by some of the world’s leading technology companies.

🔗 https://t.co/UcOvI5EyLR

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

During South Africa’s Presidency of the G20 last year, we sought to align the outcomes of our Presidency with the SGD4 global agenda by championing foundation quality learning, strengthening the education profession and promoting mutual recognition of qualifications and skills across borders. https://t.co/EZFNK84yj9

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

It depends on the voices and agency of young people themselves who are most affected by education transformation and who must be partners in shaping it.

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

The work ahead requires coordinated action across the entire global education community. It demands sustained political commitment at the highest levels. It requires adequate, innovative, and sustainable financing.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

Resilience means building education systems that are not fragile branches bending in the wind, but sturdy forests with deep roots and the capacity to regenerate.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

This is not a time for incremental adjustments or business as usual. This is a time for bold, system-wide transformation that builds more resilient, adaptive, and future-ready education systems.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

Without equity at the centre of education policy, reform risks reproducing the very inequalities it seeks to overcome.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

We cannot achieve SDG 4 without prioritizing equity and inclusion with absolute clarity and purpose. Inclusive quality education means reaching all learners, whether they are male or female, able-bodied or living with disabilities, urban or rural, rich or poor.
https://t.co/EZFNK84yj9

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

The teaching profession stands at the heart of any meaningful education transformation. Across our world, teachers strive to perform their duties under extremely difficult conditions. These include inadequate compensation, insufficient professional development, overwhelming classroom sizes, and the profound emotional toll of teaching in an era of growing uncertainty and mental health crises among young people. We cannot transform education without transforming the conditions under which our teachers work and the respect with which we treat them.
https://t.co/EZFNK84yj9

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

Much work still lies ahead to make sure that all children have access to educational opportunities in which they build strong early learning foundations and then go on to develop the skills needed to thrive in a fast-changing world. https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

The dashboard of country commitments launched at our 2024 stock-take shows us where nations are advancing, where progress has stalled, and where urgent action is required.

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

Today, as we review progress toward SDG 4, we must celebrate genuine achievements while confronting uncomfortable truths.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

Our credibility will be measured not by the aspirations we declare, but by the progress we achieve for learners everywhere.

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

TES +4 must take stock of the targets and objectives that Member States set for themselves, assess the progress we have made, learn from the challenges we have encountered, and renew our commitment to delivering on the promise of transforming education.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

At the same time, we stand at the threshold of a technological revolution that will fundamentally reshape the skills our young people need to thrive.

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

The pandemic may be behind us, but serious challenges remain. Tightening fiscal conditions impact our ability to invest in education. Conflicts and climate-related shocks are disrupting education and displacing millions.

https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

When we convened in 2022, the global education crisis had been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 140 countries committed to recover learning losses, to close equity gaps, to strengthen our teachers, and to ensure that no child would be left behind.
https://t.co/EZFNK84yj9

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

It has been 4 years since the Transforming Education Summit called us to action, and the 2024 Global Meeting strengthened that call through the Fortaleza Declaration.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

From my own country, South Africa, comes a story of optimism and hope.

Last year we achieved the highest school-leaving certificate pass rate in our democratic history.

What makes this all the more extraordinary is that the majority of those passes qualifying for university entry were learners from poor communities. https://t.co/EZFNK84yj9

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

In India, education investment has helped build a skilled workforce whose tech talent is amongst the most highly sought in the global marketplace. https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU

[Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa]

In China, investment in education over the past four decades has transformed a once predominantly agrarian society into the world’s second largest economy, lifting more than 800 million people out of poverty in the process.
https://t.co/ELhF7cKGeU