Education Ministers in Africa meeting during the 2024 Education Forum in London in underscored a renewed commitment to tackling the continent's learning crisis, a statement from Human Capital Africa, an organization that uses evidence to mobilize governments to take action to improve foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes for children in Sub-Saharan Africa, says.
Latest data on foundational learning outcomes paints a grim picture, indicating, nine out of every ten African primary school students lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. The ministers meeting during a breakfast organized by HCA in collaboration with Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), agreed to address this learning crisis as a matter of utmost urgency.
"This crisis hampers academic progress, exacerbates education disparities, and undermines students' readiness to join the workforce and stifles national and continental socio-economic growth," reads the statement.
The ministers highlighted that this challenge is compounded by insufficient teacher training, resources, and incentives, especially in rural areas.
Malawi's Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa-Wirima, stressed the importance of development partners adopting a unified approach to foundational learning reform, urging them to move away from the fragmented, cherry-picking strategies frequently used. Kambauwa-Wirima shared Malawi's comprehensive five-strand foundational learning strategy which is aimed at improving foundational learning outcomes to 79 percent by 2030.
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"The Strategy targets five critical areas of foundational learning reform, namely: increasing support to teachers in Standards 1-4, enhancing teacher training and deployment, curriculum redesign and resource improvement, expanding school feeding coverage, and digitalising education through integration of educational technologies.," said Kambauwa-Wirima.
According to the Minister, a national foundation learning steering committee in Malawi was established to ensure accountability and track progress in implementing Malawi's foundation learning reforms.
During the meeting it emerged that African leaders were taking ownership of the learning crisis. Echoing Minister Kambauwa-Wirima's sentiments, African leaders called on development partners and stakeholders to expand successful foundational learning initiatives, such as structured pedagogy and Teaching-at-the-Right-Level (TaRL), and to implement integrated programs to ensure cost-effectiveness and impactful delivery.
Ministers and partners pledged to continue championing foundational learning reform and scaling of successful interventions during the African Union Year of Education, with upcoming commitments at the AU Mid-Year Coordination Meetings scheduled for July 2024 in Accra, Ghana, and the FLEX ADEA High-Level Policy Dialogue in November 2024 in Lusaka, Zambia.
