frica’s youth population is booming. The World Bank predicts that 2023 will be the year that Sub-Saharan Africa becomes the region with the greatest number of children, for the first time in recorded history. This demographic milestone represents both a unique opportunity and a unique challenge accompanied by global socio-economic consequences. Thus, there is a palpable sense of urgency among political leaders across the continent as they gather in Dar es Salaam for the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit on 25-26 July. The event will facilitate a variety of high-level discussions aimed at identifying solutions for how best to boost global human capital with Sub-Saharan Africa at the focal point.
With 525 million young people aged 14 or below, this number is expected to reach approximately 720 million by 2050. This is in stark contrast to the stagnation or even decline in young populations projected for the rest of the world during the same period. The implications of this demographic tipping point are profound and transformative. The coming generation of young Africans must make an ever-increasing impact on the global labor market as well as on sustainable economic development—from the community to the international level. However, the extent to which this is possible depends largely on whether these children possess the necessary foundational skills. This is where the majority of the urgency stems from as Sub-Saharan Africa is currently faced with a 90% learning poverty rate according to UNESCO—meaning that the vast majority of children are unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. If this trend persists, the bulk of the region’s ballooning child population will be functionally illiterate and highly unlikely to develop the technical abilities required to obtain high-wage jobs and contribute meaningfully to the global economy.
A recent report by Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) highlights that, “once children have missed early skills, they are unable to engage with the curriculum in higher grades and stop learning, even if they remain in school.” The challenge is particularly significant in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a report on foundational learning in Africa by UNESCO in 2022, “…about 16% of students [in Africa] achieved minimum proficiency in reading by the end of primary in 2020, compared with 61% globally.” The report also found that in Mathematics “23% of students [in Africa] achieved minimum proficiency by the end of primary (i.e. they are ‘prepared for the future’), compared with 60% globally.”
Therefore, it becomes of greater importance to every nation state that the region’s burgeoning generation of young learners are provided with at least the basic education they need to become productive in the global economy. At The World Bank spring meetings earlier this year, Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund echoed this sentiment, commenting that, "Half of all of those who are going to graduate from school in 2030, will be totally ill-equipped in order to enter the economy of the 2030s. And that's a disgrace.”
As a response, The World Bank’s Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) as well as Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Michael Kremer have highlighted a few proven strategies to increase learning outcomes—especially when deployed holistically, at speed and scale, and part of a system-wide education transformation.
The GEEAP’s 2023 report outlines the three most cost-effective changes as:
· Providing information on the benefits, costs, and quality of education
· Structured pedagogy
· Targeting teaching instruction by learning level, not grade
Similarly, in 2022, Professor Kremer led a study in Kenya in which he assessed student outcomes in a variety of primary and pre-primary schools, both public and private. The findings indicated that students gained on average 0.9 additional years of learning over two years if they studied at a school that implemented the following criteria:
· A mix of detailed lesson plans
· Regular teacher feedback sessions
· Classroom monitoring
This mirrors one of the key findings of the GEEAP Report, illustrating how supporting teachers with structured pedagogy represents an effective component of a broader system-wide strategy for education transformation, capable of boosting learning gains.
A successful example of this approach can be found in Edo State, Nigeria. The EdoBEST program—which covers more than 1,200 schools and over 380,000 students—provides detailed lesson plans and well-designed instructional material, coupled with an emphasis on teaching at the right level regardless of students’ age or grade. A study of the EdoBEST program found that reading fluency had accelerated to 70% of that in high income countries—compared with 30% for Nigeria overall and other low- and middle-income countries.
EdoBEST and similar government-led education transformation programs in several other Nigerian states, as well as Rwanda, take a holistic approach, implementing all the proven solutions highlighted by the GEEAP and Kremer reports simultaneously. It is a data-driven and outcome-focused approach which transforms every step and involves every person within an education system.
With Sub-Saharan Africa’s youth population and learning poverty both rapidly rising, the possibility of a disastrous waste of human potential is immense. Foundational learning is a crucial springboard from which students can go on to thrive and compete in the global economy. Therefore, the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit provides an ideal opportunity for leaders to adopt proven approaches from the Global South and deliver an urgently needed transformation for Africa, and the world’s, coming generation.
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Shift Instructional Strategies to Boost Sub-Saharan Human Capital
July 26, 2023
Historic, booming population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is often cast as a unique challenge, but it also offers unique opportunities, with global socio-economic consequences for both. Developing the region's human capital will be key to building a brighter future, writes NewGlobe's Soji Akinyele.
A
frica’s youth population is booming. The World Bank predicts that 2023 will be the year that Sub-Saharan Africa becomes the region with the greatest number of children, for the first time in recorded history. This demographic milestone represents both a unique opportunity and a unique challenge accompanied by global socio-economic consequences. Thus, there is a palpable sense of urgency among political leaders across the continent as they gather in Dar es Salaam for the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit on 25-26 July. The event will facilitate a variety of high-level discussions aimed at identifying solutions for how best to boost global human capital with Sub-Saharan Africa at the focal point.
With 525 million young people aged 14 or below, this number is expected to reach approximately 720 million by 2050. This is in stark contrast to the stagnation or even decline in young populations projected for the rest of the world during the same period. The implications of this demographic tipping point are profound and transformative. The coming generation of young Africans must make an ever-increasing impact on the global labor market as well as on sustainable economic development—from the community to the international level. However, the extent to which this is possible depends largely on whether these children possess the necessary foundational skills. This is where the majority of the urgency stems from as Sub-Saharan Africa is currently faced with a 90% learning poverty rate according to UNESCO—meaning that the vast majority of children are unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. If this trend persists, the bulk of the region’s ballooning child population will be functionally illiterate and highly unlikely to develop the technical abilities required to obtain high-wage jobs and contribute meaningfully to the global economy.
A recent report by Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) highlights that, “once children have missed early skills, they are unable to engage with the curriculum in higher grades and stop learning, even if they remain in school.” The challenge is particularly significant in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a report on foundational learning in Africa by UNESCO in 2022, “…about 16% of students [in Africa] achieved minimum proficiency in reading by the end of primary in 2020, compared with 61% globally.” The report also found that in Mathematics “23% of students [in Africa] achieved minimum proficiency by the end of primary (i.e. they are ‘prepared for the future’), compared with 60% globally.”
Therefore, it becomes of greater importance to every nation state that the region’s burgeoning generation of young learners are provided with at least the basic education they need to become productive in the global economy. At The World Bank spring meetings earlier this year, Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund echoed this sentiment, commenting that, "Half of all of those who are going to graduate from school in 2030, will be totally ill-equipped in order to enter the economy of the 2030s. And that's a disgrace.”
As a response, The World Bank’s Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) as well as Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Michael Kremer have highlighted a few proven strategies to increase learning outcomes—especially when deployed holistically, at speed and scale, and part of a system-wide education transformation.
The GEEAP’s 2023 report outlines the three most cost-effective changes as:
· Providing information on the benefits, costs, and quality of education
· Structured pedagogy
· Targeting teaching instruction by learning level, not grade
Similarly, in 2022, Professor Kremer led a study in Kenya in which he assessed student outcomes in a variety of primary and pre-primary schools, both public and private. The findings indicated that students gained on average 0.9 additional years of learning over two years if they studied at a school that implemented the following criteria:
· A mix of detailed lesson plans
· Regular teacher feedback sessions
· Classroom monitoring
This mirrors one of the key findings of the GEEAP Report, illustrating how supporting teachers with structured pedagogy represents an effective component of a broader system-wide strategy for education transformation, capable of boosting learning gains.
A successful example of this approach can be found in Edo State, Nigeria. The EdoBEST program—which covers more than 1,200 schools and over 380,000 students—provides detailed lesson plans and well-designed instructional material, coupled with an emphasis on teaching at the right level regardless of students’ age or grade. A study of the EdoBEST program found that reading fluency had accelerated to 70% of that in high income countries—compared with 30% for Nigeria overall and other low- and middle-income countries.
EdoBEST and similar government-led education transformation programs in several other Nigerian states, as well as Rwanda, take a holistic approach, implementing all the proven solutions highlighted by the GEEAP and Kremer reports simultaneously. It is a data-driven and outcome-focused approach which transforms every step and involves every person within an education system.
With Sub-Saharan Africa’s youth population and learning poverty both rapidly rising, the possibility of a disastrous waste of human potential is immense. Foundational learning is a crucial springboard from which students can go on to thrive and compete in the global economy. Therefore, the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit provides an ideal opportunity for leaders to adopt proven approaches from the Global South and deliver an urgently needed transformation for Africa, and the world’s, coming generation.
