Think back to when you were 10. Imagine if you had not been able to read and understand a simple story at that age. Where do you think you would be today? Age 10 is the age at which children should be switching from learning to read to reading to learn. This critical milestone sets children up for a lifetime of learning. It increases their ability to earn, innovate, improve their own opportunities, and contribute to their societies, including becoming...
Even before COVID-19 hit, the world was experiencing a global learning crisis: 90% of children in low-income countries could not read and understand a simple story by their 10th birthday. In Nigeria, three-quarters of primary teachers could not pass a fourth grade test. The onset of COVID-19 is exacerbating this: at its peak, the pandemic pushed 1.6 billion children out of school. 8 out of 10 children surveyed in 46 countries reported that they have learnt very little or not...
Even before COVID-19 hit, 90% of children in low-income countries could not read and understand a simple story when they reached their 10th birthday. In Nigeria, three-quarters of primary teachers cannot pass a fourth grade test. The onset of COVID-19 is exacerbating the global learning crisis. At its peak, COVID-19 pushed 1.6 billion children out of school. By October, schools in 92 countries will remain closed. These months of lost learning disproportionately affect the poorest and the most marginalised. In...
The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to undo years of progress on global education. Since the pandemic started, school closures have affected up to 91% of enrolled learners, or 1.6 billion children. Here is a look at how countries’ policies on school closures evolved over the past six months. COVID-19 quickly transformed from a localized epidemic to a global pandemic with far-reaching consequences across sectors 6 months ago, when COVID-19 was still just a localized epidemic, only two countries had restrictions on...
Even before COVID-19, 90% of children in low-income countries could not read and understand a simple sentence. The global learning crisis is the biggest educational threat of our time, not just because it means that individual potential is being squandered. The world’s future hangs in the balance. After all, the children of today are the doctors and public health professionals of tomorrow. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, this sobering picture has only gotten worse. At its peak, COVID-19 pushed 1.6 billion...
This is the second post in a series about how we ensure children are learning in school. We kicked off with an overview of the evidence pointing to a global learning crisis and how we can solve it. Now, we’re looking into global progress in access to education, and where there is still room for improvement. Improving education is critical to our mission of ending poverty: if everyone completed secondary education, we could cut the number of people living in...
This is the first post in a monthly series about how we ensure children are learning in school. We’re kicking off with an overview of the evidence pointing to a global learning crisis and how we can solve it. Stay tuned for more stories that dive deeper into the evidence and our solutions for better global education outcomes. Improving education is central to our work here at ONE. To have the biggest impact, we wanted to identify what the greatest...
Today, young people need a wide variety of skills to thrive in the global economy. Alongside traditional academic skills, such as literacy and numeracy, education should foster 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking and collaboration. This is known as cultivating breadth of skills and competencies. At the same time, half the world’s upcoming generation is at at risk of being left behind. If nothing changes, 825 million young people will not be on track to learn basic secondary-level skills...