By Adesina Wahab

According to the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, Institute for Statistics, Learning Poverty means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. Over 100 million children are affected in Sub-Sahara Africa and South-East Asia. 

WHAT is Accelerator Programme?

Accelerator Programme recognises and supports cohorts of governments that exhibit the crucial ingredients needed to fight learning poverty. It was launched in late 2020 by the World Bank and UNICEF, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics, and USAID.

Governments implementing accelerator programme are those that demonstrate strong political and financial commitment to reducing learning poverty; willingness to measure and monitor learning outcomes; and readiness to implement large-scale, evidence-based reform programmes to improve foundational literacy/skills.

The World Bank and UNICEF recognise the initial cohort of Accelerators to include Brazil (state of Ceará), Ecuador, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria (Edo State), Pakistan, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. In pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goal 4, SDG4, the Accelerator Programme aims to demonstrate that governments that are dedicated to improving their foundational learning outcomes can achieve results within a few years through focused, evidence-based action, with adequate political and financial support.

As part of the programme, the World Bank is working with Accelerator governments to:

1. Set and monitor key targets focusing on foundational learning;

2. Develop a clear, evidence-backed, and realistic plan on how to reach the targets; and

3. Strengthen the governments’ capacity to implement the reform programme. UNICEF will complement this effort and strengthen society-wide commitment and support by engaging Accelerators to:

1.  Implement advocacy campaigns to establish, publicize, and secure wide-ranging support around government targets; and

2. Increase partner alignment and accountability by aligning donors, civil society, the private sector, and other education stakeholders around the target, investment case, and programming support. 

Nigeria’s situation

Among the factors responsible for learning poverty is the out-of-school children menace and the country is highly affected by it. Therefore, serious engagement and striving to adopt and be part of the accelerator nations should be the focus of the Nigerian government. However, since education is a concurrent matter in the Constitution, some states are making efforts at reducing learning poverty and the OSC menace. One of such states is Edo, whose effort has been recognised globally to warrant it being listed as an accelerator state.

The state launched the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation EdoBEST in 2018. Recently, officials of the World Bank led by the Global Head of Education, Dr. Jaime Saveedra; Ms. Scherezed Latif, Education Practice Manager for West and Central Africa; Senior staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, led by Education Programme Officer, Dr. Clio Dintilhac; Chief of Education, UNICEF, Mrs. Sahaadna Panday, and Mrs. Yetunde Oluwatosin, Education Officer, UNICEF Nigeria and their team members were in Edo State to visit rural schools in order to assess the impact of EdoBEST on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.

At Okpon Primary School, the delegation interacted extensively with teachers, pupils and community elders.  When asked their greatest need, the pupils and community elders said perimeter fencing for the school. The delegation noted that what is being taught at the rural school is the same as what obtains in schools in Benin City, the state capital.

According to the Edo State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, “the vision of Governor Godwin Obaseki to reform education in Edo State is paying off. We have worked hard since the launch of EdoBEST on April 19, 2018 and now our reform has evolved to EdoBEST 2.0, a sector-wide reform framework that goes from basic to tertiary. 

“At the basic level, we are leveraging on gains made in the last four years to continue to close the learning gap. At the secondary level, we have just begun reform of our school system, strengthening school level leadership, introduced digital learning, professional development for all teachers as well as setup School Management Board for every secondary school. At the Technical and Vocational Education level, we have identified 17 industries that we will train our students for, from Oil and Gas, Energy, Textile, Computer craft, to the Hospitality and Service Industries. 

“Governor Obaseki has announced the establishment of 20 new TVET schools. Our reforms at the tertiary education level focus on Relevance, Quality and Access. In the area of access, our new multi-campus system will ensure that there is a state-owned tertiary institution in all the 18 local government areas of Edo State.” A peer review of the Edo programme by other states and taking it to higher level can be the antidote that the country needs to tackle learning poverty and make basic education a delight.