Education: Building forward together, stronger, bolder, better

This week, global education sector thought leaders from over 165 countries are deliberating on the theme “Education: Building forward together, stronger, bolder, better” at the Education World Forum 2022 (EWF2022) in London.

Understandably, the theme of the conference is inspired by the turbulence experienced in the education sector following the outbreak of Covid 19.

Because of the unfortunate pandemic, data from topline research organisations and multilateral institutions paint a picture of devastating loss and distress in the education sector.

For instance, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the scale of loss “is nearly insurmountable.”

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In a detailed report, UNICEF notes that, “millions of children significantly missed out on the academic learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom, with younger and marginalized children facing the greatest loss.”

Particularly affected are low-and-middle-income countries, where learning losses to school closures have left up to 70 percent of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text (up from 53 percent pre-pandemic).

Although there are no accurate figures that show the loss in Nigeria, statements made by representatives of UNICEF Nigeria and the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC) indicate that the numbers are grim. And Nigeria is not alone. Several developing countries are in the same boat.

Thought leaders at EWF2022 are deliberating on ways and possible templates that can be used to recoup the learning gains that were obliterated by Covid. The overall vision is to have a global education sector recovery that is not only bold and strong but also inclusive, sustainable and capable of delivering economic prosperity.

No doubt, Nigeria has homegrown solutions that are on the table at EWF2022. EdoBEST, the basic education sector reform programme which was introduced by the Governor Godwin Obaseki led administration in Edo state is one of such programmes. It has come to be recognized as a template for rapid improvement in learning outcomes in public-school systems.

Upon implementation of EdoBEST, pupils in Edo primary schools began to learn more, spent more time learning, worked harder, and experienced a more positive classroom environment. This was not restricted to boys, as girls in EdoBEST schools outperformed all other students.

So successful has the programme been that all state-owned junior secondary schools in Edo have adopted it. Nationally, two other states (Lagos and Kwara) have adopted the EdoBEST model to rescue their schools.

At the international level, several governments across Africa have understudied the EdoBEST model while the programme has received the support and endorsement of the World Bank.

The bank has described EdoBEST as an example of how a public-private partnership can be arranged and should work. We cannot go out to look for models that work when we have a homegrown model that is working, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu told a gathering at the Ekiti State Fountain Summit in 2021.

At EWF2022, all sessions that have been designed to assist participants respond to education sector challenges. These sections will enable those present learn how their counterparts have strengthened, changed and improved the school systems within their territories.

Participants are exploring what has been learnt about equity, use of artificial intelligence, technology, data and information and their impact on what seems most important for education when society and its systems become more stretched and pressured.

Participants are also being exposed to themes in planning and developing education to support individual and collective resilience, economic progress and the contribution education can or should make.

In all, by following the programme through, they will each have been helped to develop their own picture, for their individual contexts, of how to build a stronger, bolder and better future.

The desire to build a stronger future is what is inspiring programmes like EdoBEST. As an example, Governor Obaseki noted in a Financial Times article that “with thousands of young boys and girls undertaking perilous trips across the Sahara desert in the hope of reaching Europe, we were forced to focus on the root causes propelling them to migrate at any cost.

“One factor was the difficult economic and social circumstances of parents in some rural communities. The breakdown of the education system — particularly at the basic level — also resulted in a significant learning deficit among young people, which made them unemployable and desperate to find a future elsewhere.

EdoBEST was therefore a response to an education system that was underperforming and pupils that could not match their counterparts. As a response, the programme has addressed the issue of poor training of teachers, teacher absenteeism, a poor syllabus, lack of data to make decisions, and disconnect between communities and the schools in them.

EdoBEST teachers are supported through technology, Learning and Development officers who ensure that teacher professional development is continuous as well as Quality Assurance Officers who visit schools daily to ensure that pupils are getting the best.

The result is the quantifiable progress that is being seen across Edo schools and the endorsements that have followed each milestone.

March 2022 marked two years COVID-19-related disruptions to global education. Most leaders believe that now is the time to building forward together; stronger, bolder, better in the education sector.