A year ago, a number of multilateral agencies collaborated on a report aimed at highlighting the chasmal global crisis in education. Compiled from data gathered around the world, the report, published under the auspices of the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, UK Government Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, USAID, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, estimated that 70% of ten year olds were unable to read and understand a simple written text. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which basically turned the world on its head, the data had shown that 57% of ten year olds were in those circumstances. Alarmed at how wide the gap had grown in just a few years, the organisations had issued a clarion call for political commitment and action from governments as well as all strata of society to help reverse this situation, which it termed “learning poverty”.
A look around then gave the impression that the pandemic was over and things had returned to ‘normal’. That is amplified even more today with masks now the exception rather than the rule, and social distancing a thing of the past. Hand sanitiser sales have plummeted and one wonders whether people still remember to wash their hands anymore. In fact, however, ‘normal’ is illusory. Those who care to pay attention would see that Covid remains a threat; people are still contracting it, becoming very ill and dying, though not in as great a number as before. Education, which suffered a huge blow from the forced closures owing to the pandemic remains severely crippled. What seems alarming today, based on the data in the report titled “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” pales in comparison to the ramifications ahead.
Let’s do the Maths. Last year’s ten-year-old will be an adult in another ten years. Imagine the proportions of the crisis if the current status quo doesn’t change. Worse still, in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, the report revealed, learning poverty had the biggest impact; 80% of ten-year-old children with the inability to read and understand a simple text. This is a future no one wants to imagine, yet what or how much is actually being done to prevent it coming to pass? Unfortunately, the answer is not enough.
A mere glance reveals that while the education sector, in some places, has received several boosts there has not been as much attention paid to the alleviative measures necessary to combat what for some has been more than a year of nothing. In this country, for example, anecdotal evidence from parents, teachers, and children, indicated that for many of them school closures were an extended holiday period. In some instances, students did not have any access to electronic devices or the internet to pursue online classes. Teachers, many of whom were unfamiliar with distance education, struggled before finally being trained. In rural and hinterland communities, children grappled with the physical workbooks the Ministry of Education offered as an alternative and often had no point of reference for completing them.
The limited hard data for Guyana publicly available, drawn from the National Grade Six Assessment results, an exam written at between ten and 12 years old, shows a yawning slump. For example, in 2019, the highest mark garnered was 532; in 2020 it was 525; in 2021 it was 524; and in 2022, 518. While these are enough to raise an eyebrow over, what the results fail to reveal is the other end of the spectrum. The public remains unenlightened as to what the lowest mark is and how many children scored it. The latter would be part of the cohort referred to in the report mentioned above.
Now if we were truly serious about affording quality education to all, these are the children who would be singled out for special attention. Such action epitomises what ‘no child left behind’ ought to mean. Instead, they are sent off to be taught from new curriculums when they were clearly unable to master the old. Teachers, despairing over their inability to grasp simple concepts, and perhaps their disruptive behaviour – by which they mask the fact that nothing clicks – would likely write them off as hopeless. This is the normal that must change in order for children to have the bright futures they deserve. Another opportunity to do things differently is close at hand as this year’s NGSA results will be available in a few weeks. One can only hope that empathy and common sense trump the appeal to appear successful.
