First Spotlight report on basic education and foundational learning on Africa launched

The Spotlight report on basic education completion and foundational learning in Africa is the first in a three-part series. It is a partnership between the Global Education Monitoring Report, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the African Union. It aims to inspire national dialogue on foundational learning and to form a key input for the new LEARN peer learning mechanism on basic education established by the African Union.

The report, Born to learn, focuses on why learning levels from the region are low. All children are #BorntoLearn yet only one in five children who reach the end of primary school achieve the minimum level of proficiency required for them to continue their education and fulfil their potential. Combining completion and learning statistics, the report shows that children in Africa are at least five times less likely than children in the rest of the world to be prepared for the future.

The report contains eight policy-oriented recommendations for driving change. It calls for the spotlight to be turned on children’s learning. Despite improvements in learning assessments, there are no data on the learning levels of two thirds of African children. And it remains very important to provide the minimal conditions for learning. Today, only one in three primary school students in Africa receive a school meal. Just one in five are taught in their home language. Each textbook is shared on average by three students and yet owning their textbook can increase children’s literacy scores by up to 20%.

The 2022 Spotlight continental report draws on five country reports, also just published, covering the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal and on case studies from the Central African Republic (language of instruction), Kenya (district education officers), Madagascar (school feeding), Malawi (textbooks), Sao Tome and Principe (early childhood education), Sierra Leone (learning assessment) and South Sudan (teachers).

To download the report please follow the link.