African leaders have committed to tackling the learning crisis in the continent where 9 out of 10 children are unable to read with understanding by the age of 10.
The commitment was made when Human Capital Africa met African leaders, business leaders, civil society organisations and prominent African intellectuals at the Harvard Club on the sidelines of the UN Transforming Education Summit in New York.
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According to a statement from the organisation, the leaders committed to prioritise foundational learning while the Oby Ezekwesili-led HCA launched accountability tools to tackle the menace.
The tools, it was gathered, will serve as an independent monitoring mechanism that is essential to ensure accountability and provide the insights the governments need in designing and delivering solutions. The HCA Learning Scorecard, it was gathered ranks countries in Sub-Saharan Africa on the quality of primary education in 6 categories including Enrolment, Completion, Learning, Resourcing, Remediation and Socio economic factors. These represent the ability of the education sector to provide quality education to children at a young age to prepare them for a future of learning.
Speaking at the launch, HCA founder Dr Oby Ezekwesili said: “It is clear from the results of our inaugural HCA scorecard that we have considerable work to do, with the majority of countries scoring poorly on our 2022 indicators. By providing these benchmarks, we have an opportunity to celebrate the countries making advances, and to focus on those that need most help. Through a series of quarterly and annual reviews, we can ensure the right assistance is being provided at the right time.”
The President of Guinea Bissau and Chairman of ECOWAS, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, reinforced the region’s commitment to take action in tackling the menace.
“9 out of 10 children cannot read a simple sentence by the age of ten, this is an issue of the utmost importance and Africa must not let itself be left behind. We are committed to taking urgent and decisive action to ensure all children develop foundational learning skills to realise their full potential. Today I take this opportunity to urge us to convert the commitments we have made into actions and interventions in your countries. We must learn from best practice to implement the right solutions and leverage the scorecard being launched today to measure and report on progress regularly, using these reviews to motivate our people when they succeed and to hold them accountable for underperformance,” he said
The importance of Foundational Learning to the business community was recognised by the President of the Dangote Group of companies, Aliko Dangote, who said that the learning crisis is getting worse by the day and has consequences far beyond the classroom.
“By 2030, about a quarter of the world’s population under the age of 25 will be in or from Africa. So the economic prospects, not only of Africa but of the world, depend on the skills, capabilities and productivity of our youth.
“A large proportion of job applicants not only lack basic qualifications but also struggle with simple computation and comprehension. This hinders their ability to take up jobs we are desperate to offer and impedes those already in employment. Skills acquired early in primary school form the foundation for later learning and are fundamental to a productive, capable workforce and a strong economy. Gaining digital skills, or more rudimentary technical and vocational qualifications, is harder without basic learning,” he said.
The HCA scorecard will be formally launched with African Policy Makers at the ADEA triennale Summit in Mauritius from October 19-21.
