Ayodele Olalere
At a UNESCO Summit, an education methodology adopted by Edo, Lagos and Kwara states, was recently showcased at the Transforming Education Pre-Summit held in Paris, France.
The method was praised by 2019 Nobel Prize Winning Professor, Micheal Kremer
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In a report, “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update, presented at the Summit,” it task countries on the need to concentrate their efforts on the most cost-effective approaches to tackle learning poverty.
It states that these interventions must be implemented as part of a national learning recovery program that can also serve as a springboard for building more effective, equitable, and resilient education systems.
According to Dr. Benjamin Piper, Director of Global Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “there are solutions that can work at scale and in government systems. Committing to substantial learning recovery programs is a start, but the composition of those programs matter.”
“In Nigeria, based on these suggestions, there are bright glimmers of hope for effective scalable education transformation as seen in Lagos State’s EKOEXCEL, Edo State’s EdoBEST and Kwara’s KwaraLEARN, all with technical support from NewGlobe, Nigeria.
These are successful education transformation programs already delivering value in Nigeria based on a methodology that was recently studied by 2019 Nobel Prize Winning Professor, Micheal Kremer and others, the report stated.
It added: “This study shows that attending schools delivering highly standardized education has the potential to produce dramatic learning gains at scale, suggesting that policymakers may wish to explore incorporation of standardization, including standardized lesson plans and teacher feedback and monitoring, in their own systems.
”If replicated at scale across public systems, this integrated methodology could put students on the study track to match academic performance levels achieved by peers from upper-middle-income countries, pushing their countries up education league tables to match countries with incomes three or four times greater per person.”
At the Summit, which included technical meetings on Thematic Action Tracks and engagements with key stakeholders, the Group Managing Director, Newglobe, Omowale David-Ashiru, while commenting on the report by the Nobel Prize winner said education is a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace and stability.
He added that tackling learning poverty is an urgent challenge that must be addressed by politicians as Nigeria approaches the election season.
“They should make it part of their plans and policies,” he advocated.
Some of those at the Paris Summit included Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and the Director for Basic Education, Dr Folake Olatunji Davis, and Newglobe Vice President, Stacey Nwokeyi.
The main Summit is slated for September 2022 in New York. It will seek to mobilise political ambition, action, solutions and solidarity to transform education.