The African Union (AU) has designated 2024 as the Year of Education, marking the first time the AU has chosen education as its theme for the year, sending a strong signal about what it considers its development priorities. Become. But going to school and actually learning are two different things.For education to be effective, it must be based on sound science about how children learn best – The Claim Kwame Akyampong and ross hall
Many regions in Africa have made impressive progress in increasing enrollment. The proportion of primary school children not attending school halved from 35% in 2000 to 17% in 2019, according to a 2021 report from UNICEF and the African Union. However, if children are not attending school, simply attending school is not enough. Learn basic skills while attending school.
According to the World Bank, 87% of 10-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa are in “learning poverty,” meaning they are unable to read and understand simple texts. To improve the quality of education, AU leaders in their statement placed special emphasis on developing resilient education systems to prepare children for future challenges.
While these are admirable goals, education systems must be evidence-based to be successful. Learning outcomes will not improve unless teaching and learning practices are based on sound science about how children learn best.
A recent McKinsey study also highlighted the need to anchor systems in evidence, stating that successful systems are “based on clear research into what improves outcomes.”
However, despite calls from the AU and others to invest in the generation and use of evidence, this is still not standard in education systems.
Even if there is a commitment to use evidence, for example: born to learn, the first in a three-part 'Spotlight' series published by UNESCO, the African Association for the Development of Education and the African Union's Global Education Monitoring Report, shows that the majority of education policies and practices still lack evidence. Not yet. .
What is needed are practical examples and collaborative efforts that provide a path for countries to build resilient, evidence-based education systems.
An example of evidence-centered collaboration to improve learning outcomes is Children's Learning and Education Facility (CLEF) in Ivory Coast. Led by the Government of Ivory Coast, CLEF is a new funding partnership across the public and private sectors that aims to improve access to and enhance the quality of education for millions of children in Ivory Coast.
This initiative brings together an unprecedented collaboration between the Government of Ivory Coast, global cocoa and chocolate companies, the Jacobs Foundation, and the UBS Optimus Foundation. As of December 2023, CLEF partners have committed more than $88 million to address the dual problems of lack of quality education and the risk of child labor. The coalition has an ambitious goal of improving access to quality education for 4 million children by 2027.
This will be achieved through the creation of critical school infrastructure and teacher training that supports the implementation of evidence-based, child-centred teaching and learning practices. This includes a 'teach at the right level' approach that aims to improve fundamental skills by allowing each child to learn at their own pace and at their own level.
CLEF was endorsed in a recent World Bank report that praised the program as a best-practice public-private collaboration that other countries should emulate.
Education hub in Ghana
Despite Ghana's laudable progress in reducing poverty, it still faces significant educational challenges, including low learning levels and significant numbers of children out of school.
To address these challenges, efforts are underway to develop Education Evidence Labs (EdLabs) to serve as central hubs for educational research and data collection. It brings together governments, local research universities, and educators to ensure that national education priorities, policies, and practices are implemented. Based on rigorous evidence about what works in educational settings.
The ultimate aim is to drive long-term change in education systems by supporting countries to institutionalize evidence use and build capacity, with the ultimate goal of improving learning outcomes for all children. .
In Ghana, EdLab is being developed in collaboration with the Ghanaian Ministry of Education with support from the Jacobs Foundation. We aim to work in conjunction with a new 'Community of Excellence' initiative that embeds the evidence provided by EdLab into teaching and learning practice.
These talented communities will also generate new evidence that EdLab will seek to apply to national-level policy. To ensure the permanence and effectiveness of EdLab and Communities of Excellence, a new joint funding mechanism is being established, modeled on his CLEF in Ivory Coast, as a government-led coalition including key companies from the public and private sectors. .
The joint funding mechanism, EdLab, and Communities of Excellence will work together to form a systems change architecture with a clear focus on preparing children for the challenges of the future.
Pursuing such public-private financing approaches to achieve quality education for all was reaffirmed at the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee meeting in Paris in 2023. It was an opinion.
These programs in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire highlight the importance of countries investing in building evidence capacity to achieve the goals set out by the AU as a pathway to SDG 4.
As we mark 2024 as the Year of Education, let us remember that more than 160 million children around the world are engaged in child labor. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 98 million children are out of school. And millions more lack the comprehensive skills needed to succeed in the modern world.
The Year of Education 2024 serves as a call to action for governments and international organizations around the world. Initiatives such as CLEF, EdLabs, and Systems Change Architecture serve as promising examples of systemic efforts that put evidence at the center of education decision-making and pave the way for long-term, system-wide transformation of education in Africa. . AU is calling.
*Kwame Akyeampong is Professor of International Education Development at the Open University and co-chair of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP).
Ross Hall is co-leader of the Jacobs Foundation's Learning Society portfolio.
