By Cathy Maulidi
Human Capital Africa (HCA), which promotes accountability in human affairs, has asked the authorities to pay more attention to foundation literacy and numeracy skills issues.
Senior associate for HCA, Chinwe Umeh-Ujubuonu, said this following HCA officials’ two-week visit to Malawi where they interacted with government officials and members of the donor community, especially those that are working in the education sector.
Umeh-Ujubuonu said foundational learning is critical to any country’s economic growth as children who learn properly in their early stages also do well at secondary and tertiary education levels, thereby contributing significantly to the development of countries.
“It is unfortunate that nine out of 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read with meaning or do basic maths at the age of 10. This deprives them of a future of learning and keeps them from achieving their full potential in their civic, professional and social life. It also has dire consequences for the future of the African economy and the world at large,” Umeh-Ujubuonu said.
- Advertisement -
She said when a country works towards improving foundational learning for its children, it is also directly supporting gross domestic product (GDP) as evidence shows that the better children learn, the more progress a country makes.
Currently in Malawi, learning poverty is said to be at 87 percent as that percentage of children (in and out of school) that are aged 10 have difficulties reading comprehensively.
Umeh-Ujubuonu has therefore implored government leaders, including those in Malawi, to pay attention to the problem and take appropriate action to improve foundational learning in their countries.
“Governments in the Sub-Saharan region, Malawi inclusive, should stay accountable to the promises they made on foundational learning. We want our children to learn. Make sure you are consistently tracking learning outcomes across all districts in the country.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
“Malawi has set up a brilliant five-strand strategy approach to achieve foundational learning outcomes in children and, if you ask me, has Malawi solved the problem of poor foundation learning? I will say no but it is very much in the right direction to solve the problem and this must be applauded and supported” she said.
During their visit to Malawi, the HCA team engaged stakeholders such as Ministry of Education officials to discuss measures that can be adopted to improve literacy levels in the country.
Minister of Education Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima committed, months ago, to end learning poverty in the country.
“To bring the education system and the skills to a new level, the Malawi Government has set goals whose overall goal is to reduce learning poverty from 87 percent to 21 percent by 2030,” she said.
Kambauwa Wirima added that the Malawi Government has set up five pillars which are providing best support to standard one to four teachers to help junior learners read comprehensively.
During Association for The Development of Education in Africa High-Level Policy dialogue that took place in Zambia recently, over 20 African ministers of Education, including those of Malawi, committed to addressing issues of learning crisis that have affected most countries in the region, using the African Union Year of Education in 2024 as a launchpad.
Malawi was the first country in Africa to sign up to the use of accountability mechanisms from HCA to improve learning outcomes for children.
