Ghana’s youngest musician, Fotocopy, has told African children life is incomplete without education.

The artiste was on a South African based radio station, Alexandra FM. It is part of his tour and campaign to get all out-of-school children back to the classroom after Covid-19 forced the closure of schools with some of them dropping out as a result.

He said that, “I want to tell all the children out there, education is the key to success. I want them to know that without education, life is incomplete. It will be difficult to realize their dreams if they do not go back to school.”

The South African radio presenter who hosted Fotocopy, Skills Matebane could not hold back his admiration for the eight-year-old class four pupil.

Skills Matebane told Fotocopy that “you are a talented musician. I just listened to one song from you and can only conclude that you have a bright and great future. If at your age you can do this, then you can do anything”

Fotocopy as part of his ‘School Dey Be’ tour will be on the streets, visit schools, public parks, churches, radio and TV stations to share his message about the importance of education.

He will also use the opportunity to collaborate with some South African artistes, record music videos and more.

According to a March, 2022 UNICEF report, Covid 19 did not only cause a global disruption in education but also “emerging evidence shows many children did not return to school when their classrooms reopened. The report says data from Liberia shows 43% of students in public schools did not return when schools reopened in December, 2020”.

“The number of out-of-school children in South Africa tripled from 250,000 to 750,000 between March, 2020 and July, 2021. In Uganda, around 1 in 10 school children did not report back to school in January 2022 after schools were closed for two years."

"In Malawi, the dropout rate among girls in secondary education increased by 48 per cent, from 6.4 per cent to 9.5 per cent between 2020 and 2021. In Kenya, a survey of 4,000 adolescents aged 10-19 years found that 16 per cent of girls and 8 per cent of boys did not return when schools reopened”

Fotocopy is hoping to help reverse this trend with his campaign to get children back into the classrooms.