Ten years ago, volunteers and other citizens of good traversed hundreds of thousands of households across East Africa to interact with parents about children and about their school. Often they would ask “Are your children going to school” and most parents would respond proudly that indeed their children attend school. Others had even moved their children from public to private schools in a quest for quality education. During interaction with them further, they asked whether their children were learning. This was a mind blowing question, how were they supposed to know yet the school and teachers are responsible for that?
Indeed, attending school is not same as learning and that there is a global learning crisis is real. But how would we know the magnitude of the problem and if we are making progress to address the challenge? It is only by conducting regular assessments of children’s basic literacy and numeracy skills. Yet it is evident that the world is not moving fast enough to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SGD 4) on education. Projections by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Global Education Monitoring Report shows that by 2030, around 20 percent of youth and 30 percent of adults will still not be able to read in low-income countries. As policymakers and development partners deliberate on the progress, gaps and obstacles in global education in the ongoing UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), we urge everyone to #CommitToAssessment&Action, #CommitToEducation and #FundData.
Today, many children especially, in the global south learn less despite spending a significant amount of time in school. Evidence from ASER India, a PAL Network member organization reveals that even after five years of schooling, only half of all children can read at Grade II level. Moreover, trends from 2011 to 2015 from Uwezo Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda learning assessments reveal that literacy and numeracy skills are generally low and vary between countries with no signs of progress over the last five years. Even more worrying is the slow progress made to address multiple dimensions of equity. Analysis from REAL Centre, University of Cambridge indicate that 65% of poor girls enrolled in schools are learning the basics, compared with 85% of girls from the richest households. The situation is dire for households with illiterate mothers as shown by the Uwezo reports that children of educated mothers are almost twice as likely to be able to read a story.
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics warns that if current trends continue, learning levels will deteriorate in middle-income countries and fall by almost one-third in Francophone African countries by 2030. It is imperative countries make a much stronger case for investment in more assessments in a bid to track and report on SGD 4. Learning assessments will help countries to develop policies that bolster schooling plus learning. Some countries have made progress in conducting national assessments, however, of essence is to conduct cross – national assessments of learning. While implementation can be an uphill task, cross-national assessments have a huge contribution to education policy development. Conducting cross-national assessments is not for the faint hearted, it takes more courage and empowerment to do so. And it is this courage, empowerment, inclusivity and equality that will facilitate the realization of SDG 4 on education by 2030.
As champions of learning assessments, this year PAL Network will conduct a cross –national assessment dubbed the “common assessment” in numeracy in 13 countries to generate comparable data that can inform educational policy and practice. The implementing countries are spread across Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali,) Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh) and the Americas (Mexico, Nicaragua). The Common Assessment come’s at an opportune time when progress on SDG 4, among others, is being reviewed. PAL’s common assessment has a lot to offer to the global community considering that none of the international assessments measure foundational learning competencies for children in grade 2 or 3.
Additionally, it is significant to do repeated rounds of cross-national assessments to generate trends over time that can help identify best and replicable practices to monitor SDG 4. Such assessments don’t just track and report progress on SDG 4, but also generate results that inform design of action interventions to improve learning and teaching. Currently, about eight member organizations of PAL Network are conducting various actions interventions targeting those children lagging behind. The latest intervention, conducted by the Zizi Afrique Foundation in Kenya, shows that 84 percent of the children who had participated in the 40 days’ learning camp could fluently read a Grade 2 level story.
Evidently, assessments in basic literacy and numeracy, and action interventions will help the international community to benchmark their progress towards the learning outcomes indicators in SDG 4. In the ongoing HLPF in New York, we call for rapid acceleration to #CommitToAssessment&Action, #CommitToEducation and #FundData. If SDG 4 is not realized, the others goals will not be realized either.