A new Spotlight report states that ‘One in five primary school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school; their number is nearly as high as it was in 1990. Only two in three children in the region complete primary school by age 15. Among those who do, only 3 in 10 achieve the minimum proficiency level in reading, meaning that barely one in five children do so overall.’ (see link below)
The Spotlight series is a new partnership between the Global Education Monitoring Report and the Association for the Development of education in Africa (ADEA), hosted by the African Development Bank. The first report, Born to Learn, synthesizes evidence on completion rates and levels of minimum learning proficiency in the continent, informing the debate on national SDG 4 / CESA benchmarks.
It draws on five country reports covering the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal and a series of case studies from all African regions. The Spotlight Reports aim to present good practices so as to improve foundational learning and offers recommendations on key actions to support policy dialogue through established African Union peer learning mechanisms.
See the Born to Learn report here: https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/2022-spotlight-africa
See also the Leveraging Education Analysis for Results Network (LEARN) set up to strengthen the knowledge base on basic education and foundational learning in Africa building on the Spotlight report published by the GEM Report, ADEA and AU.
