World Bank presents a program to tackle Learning Poverty at READ conference.
November 6-7 2019 a conference convened on the tenth anniversary of the READ (Russian Education Aid for Development) Program was held in Moscow. Experts from around the world convened to reflect on global progress and to reemphasize the continuing need for improved learning assessment systems to effectively combat Learning Poverty.
In fact the importance of learning assessment was not so long ago, as stakeholders, development aid donors and educational institutions were focused on ensuring that children attend schools. Now it is obvious that a lot of them go to school but not learning. That is a huge problem that requires urgent and effective action to be solved.
In October 2019 the World Bank released new data which was the result of a partnership with UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics, on “Learning Poverty” – defined as the share of children who cannot read and understand a simple story by the age of 10. The Bank found that 53 percent of children in developing countries are “learning poor,” and announced a new global target to reduce that number by at least half by 2030. To help countries make progress in reaching this target and getting more children reading, the Bank introduced a literacy policy package, an education approach to strengthen entire education systems, a Learning Assessment Platform to eliminate the measurement gap, and will be focusing on a research agenda that responds to country needs around early literacy.
Additional information can be found here: worldbank.org/education | www.worldbank.org/en/programs/read
Source: Worldbank