The World Bank Education Department has issued a statement claiming that the current education crisis is the worst in 100 years.
The Education Director of the World Bank, Jaime Saavedra, says that the global learning challenge is the most serious crisis in education in a century.
Even in countries where successful education systems are assumed to be in place, they are still encountering problems.
Jaime Saavedra, in his words, “The current state of global learning is the most serious crisis in education in 100 years.”
It added that “A recent New York Times article paints a rather harrowing picture drawing attention to the fact that about one in three children in the United States cannot read at a basic level of comprehension”, a statistic that researchers say can be put down to the fact that many children are simply not being correctly taught.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank estimates 90% of 10-year-olds are unable to read a simple sentence with understanding – even though four out of five primary age children go to school.”
As such, the world’s largest gathering of national education leaders will debate and discuss the solutions to the global learning crisis at the Education World Forum in London this week.
“Over the coming days, national education leaders will debate and discuss the solutions to the global learning crisis. Data empowers leaders, informing them what is working well, and where improvements must still be made. And, Africa is demonstrating to the world what data-driven education transformation can achieve.
“Over the years, EWF has developed a reputation as a place where learning leaders from around the world can talk openly and honestly with their peers and industry partners, sharing ideas and experiences about what is working in education development – and what is not,” it said.
However, NewGlobe explained that with its partnership with EWF and through EdoBEST and EkoEXCEL, it had been able to overcome infrastructural and resource challenges to achieve exceptional learning gains for children.
It added that the key to the success of these programmes was the implementation of data-driven technology solutions.
“An interactive replica of the Situation Room is on display at NewGlobe’s stand at EWF – to share with the 1,000 delegates attending the true power of learning data.
“The results of this data-led approach to learning transformation are unmistakable.
“Even in the first eight weeks of the EKOEXCEL program launch, learning rates for literacy measured three times faster, and in numeracy two times faster, than schools that were not in the EKOEXCEL program.
“In Edo State, the EdoBEST program, lauded by the World Bank, has successfully transformed learning outcomes for hundreds of thousands of children across the State’s primary schools. Students have the equivalent of 54 per cent more schooling in English and 71 per cent more schooling in maths, learning in one term what would have normally been learnt in one year,” it added.