Parliamentarians commit to tackling the global learning crisis
24.01.22 - Global parliamentarians meet to discuss and consider action to address the global learning crisis.
At a parliamentary exchange to mark the International Day of Education, convened by the International Parliamentary Network for Education in collaboration with RESULTS UK and Results Canada, over 50 parliamentarians from around the world met to consider the urgent action necessary to address the global learning crisis.
Recognizing the crisis
Despite huge rises in the number of children enrolling in and attending school over the past two decades, millions of children around the world are still failing to learn even the basic skills of reading and writing.
In fact, according to research from the World Bank, even prior to COVID-19, 53% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries could not read and understand a simple story.
With already exceptionally large numbers of children in each classroom in many countries and teachers who are not supported or trained to teach effectively, the outbreak of COVID-19 has created a potentially fatal cocktail for children’s learning.
And that’s just for those children who are able to access school. For almost 260 million children worldwide, any access to either school or learning has remained out of reach.
This ‘Learning Poverty’, as the Bank puts it, is a global crisis and one that has grown exponentially with the learning losses accumulated over prolonged periods of school closures.
Global collaboration to ensure all children are learning
At our global meeting of MPs on International Education Day, chaired by Anita Vandenbeld MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Development in the Canadian Parliament and IPNEd Founding Member, attendees first heard from Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education in Nigeria and former Vice President of the World Bank.
Dr. Ezekwesili spoke to parliamentarians about the staggering levels of Learning Poverty globally, with 90% of 10-year-olds in low-income countries unable to read and understand a simple sentence even prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.
She highlighted the urgent need to ensure that not only are children in school, but that they are truly learning:
“If a child cannot read a simple sentence or do basic mathematics, if a child does not have these very basic foundational skills, how can we expect them to learn anything else as they grow?”
Dr. Ezekwesili’s new organization Human Capital Africa, of which she is the Founder and President, is dedicated to mobilizing governments to improve foundational literacy and numeracy for children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education, Nigeria, former Vice President, World Bank and Founder, Human Capital Africa
Parliamentarians then had the opportunity to engage directly with experts on the crisis. Dr. Robert Jenkins, Global Director of Education at UNICEF, and Dr. Rukmini Banerji, CEO of the Pratham Education Foundation.
Dr. Jenkins shared three key recommendations:
Focusing on, measuring and holding ourselves accountable to learning outcomes is critical;
Equity must be central - we must focus on the most marginalized children; and
Financing for education must be grown, but this must be used effectively and equitably to ensure learning is prioritized in the expenditure of education resources.
Dr. Banerji spoke with parliamentarians about the opportunities and best practices for measuring these learning outcomes and ensuring that these measures are both scalable and sustainable.
Pratham Education Foundation’s work in India includes measuring learning outcomes in order to be able to teach children at the level that they understand, an approach which is recognised as a global leader in assessing and addressing the learning crisis.
Parliamentary leadership will be critical to turning the crisis around
Throughout the exchange, parliamentarians from across the world shared their commitment to ensuring that all children are learning.
From the Parliament of Bangladesh, IPNEd Regional Representative for Asia, Aroma Dutta MP shared the importance of working collaboratively with education advocates to ensure the data and evidence for the learning crisis is clear:
“We need to make fundamental education with a clear-cut approach to literacy and numeracy from the primary level to the secondary level - there is a huge gap. When we are talking about quality education and education for all, we must come up with some practical number crunching to help influence the policymakers.”
Hon. Dennitah Ghati MP, of the National Assembly of Kenya, similarly remarked on the vital role of accountability and evidence to support parliamentarians and policymakers to address the learning crisis:
“I want to use this opportunity to call members of parliament to strategise on legislation that actually prioritises education… We must ask the officials in Parliament and ask our Ministers for Education to really show us ‘what are the outcomes’.”
24.01.22 - Parliamentarians join breakout room discussion with Dr. Rukmini Banerji on ‘Data and evidence for the learning crisis’.
MPs also addressed the vital importance of building equity into all solutions to the learning crisis.
Remarking on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hon. Sahar Albazar of the Egyptian Parliament noted that: “During COVID it’s very challenging for education and the quality education that children have, not only because of the accessibility because some of the rural areas find it hard to access the online services, but also I find it challenging from the side of the learner, for the student itself.”
Hon. Mike Lake MP, IPNEd Regional Representative for North America, provided a powerful case for mainstreaming equity:
“If we build our systems to be able to reach the people who are truly hardest to reach, including people with disabilities and people in refugee settings, we’re going to reach everybody else along the way, but we’ll do it in an evidence-based, impactful action-oriented way.”
Global collaboration for learning
Participating MPs recognised that their collaboration as policymakers and with global leaders is crucial.
More than anything, they recognised that this collaboration can only achieve its goals if they work with teachers, parents and learners.
A student reads a book from a cabinet filled with illustrated children's books in Kinyarwanda language in a second grade classroom at the Groupe Scolaire Ruhanga school in Burera District of Rwanda.
© Colin Crowley/Save the Children
It is with global commitment, combined with well supported teachers, the engagement of parents, and the energy and enthusiasm of learners themselves, that education systems around the world will deliver the foundational skills that all children need to develop and progress.
Boosting these foundational skills of literacy and numeracy from an early age can unlock a world of opportunities for children, and must be an urgent priority.
