3 + 4 = 50m Kids Don’t Know

Illustration. Rwanda..Photo: Heiko Junge / SCANPIX

 

A new report reveals that 50 million African children have never gone to school,that they can’t read a simple text and that they can’t do simple, functional math.

 

Yesterday, May 3, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) gave details of the World Bank sponsored report: ‘Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa’, revealing that 50 million African children suffer from lack of education.

Bringing note to the severity of Africa’s inadequate education program, Minister for Development Nikolai Astrup (H) gave Norwegian news agency comment on May 3rd, saying that he believes it urgent to remain focused upon Africa;

“Child access to education & also the quality of that learning must be prioritized.
We must try to help the countries to strengthen their education sector, with lower student-teacher ratio, a better grade of study materials, and safe schools with good teachers.”

EDUCATIONAL SUFFERING
Norad Director Jon Lomøy also spoke with the Norwegian news agency, giving comment upon schemes structured to alleviate educational suffering, saying;

“Much of the financial educational assistance has been expended ensuring that children had schools to go to. But that’s not going to be good enough.’ –

“When we see the number of children who go to a school, sometimes for years,but yet they still don’t grasp basic skills; this illustrates the importance of bringing a sharper focus upon the educational content being used by the teacher.’ –

100 LANGUAGES
“By 2020, we want teaching materials in 100 languages ​, ​so that children may access textbooks in language that they understand,” said Lomøy.

The world education status report finds that although there’s been progress at giving children access to schools; Africa’s the exception.

LOW-QUALITY EDUCATION
Ignoring the tragedy of 50 million children without schooling, the children that do have access to schools suffer from a mostly low-quality education, with a further majority failing to learn any basic remedial skills.

The report surveyed African, school-age children and found:

* three out of four children couldn’t count higher than 80
* 40% couldn’t solve entry-level computational math, such as 3 + 4
* 50% to 80% couldn’t answer a single question from a text passage
* over 50% were unable to read a single word of a text passage

Norad has initiated a collaboration between universities & colleges to help better equip teaching professionals by launching a global, digital information teaching resource library; offering educational learning materials easily accessible with electronic devices or traditional print media.

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today