Transforming Education Across Eastern and Southern Africa

In Eastern and Southern Africa, about 89% of ten-year-old children are unable to read and understand a short text, reflecting a high percentage of learning poverty that was exacerbated during the pandemic. What will it take to transform their education systems?

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Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 90 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

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David Malpass: Reversing the Global Learning Crisis Before it Derails a Generation of Children

As many as 70% of 10 year-olds in low- and middle-income economies can’t read and understand a basic text—what we call “learning poverty.” In his op-ed, originally published in USA Today, World Bank Group President David Malpass shares the four steps that are needed to recover learning losses and transform education.

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Countries with higher government expenditure on education also have higher student test scores

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Money matters, and it’s impossible to imagine increasing the primary school completion rate in low-income countries from its current 67 percent to every child finishing elementary school without increasing spending, just in terms of construction and teachers for all these additional students. But how we spend the money also matters - so increase school spending, track its use, measure its impact, and adjust. Source

Education is a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and the majority of children worldwide are now in primary school. Nevertheless, some 260 million children are still out of primary and secondary school. Learn More.

Literacy rate is an outcome indicator to evaluate educational attainment. This data can predict the quality of future labor force and can be used in ensuring policies for life skills for men and women. It can be also used as a proxy instrument to see the effectiveness of education system; a high literacy rate suggests the capacity of an education system to provide a large population with opportunities to acquire literacy skills. The accumulated achievement of education is fundamental for further intellectual growth and social and economic development, although it doesn't necessarily ensure the quality of education. Literate women implies that they can seek and use information for the betterment of the health, nutrition and education of their household members. Literate women are also empowered to play a meaningful role.