Benissan Barrigah – edited by PACT
Learning poverty in Africa represents a major challenge that hinders the development and future prospects of millions of children on the continent. According to Beeharry (2019), nearly 90% of children in sub-Saharan Africa fail to acquire basic reading and comprehension skills before the age of 10. These alarming statistics reveal the magnitude of the learning crisis in Africa, which deprives children of their fundamental right to quality education.
These statistics take on an even more concerning dimension for children living in contexts of fragility, conflict, and violence, with rates exceeding 90% in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (96%) and Niger (99%). Learning poverty poses a serious threat to their future, depriving them of the necessary skills to thrive and contribute to the development of their community and country.
These alarming realities also have a significant impact on Africa’s human capital index, which remains significantly lower than the global average. With an average of 0.41 in Africa compared to the global average of 0.56, we observe a significant gap in the development and potential of African individuals. These disparities highlight the urgency to take action to improve access to quality education and ensure that every African child can fully develop their abilities.
Education is the foundation for social and economic progress in Africa. However, several challenges continue to impede access to quality education for many African children. By identifying these underlying causes of learning poverty, we can design targeted strategies and interventions that will strengthen educational systems, train competent teachers, and create inclusive and adaptive learning environments.
Causes of Learning Poverty
The impoverishment of learning in Africa is the result of several interconnected factors that hinder access to quality education. These complex challenges have profound repercussions on communities and individuals, perpetuating a vicious and counterproductive cycle.
- Weak Governance: Profound dysfunctions in power and institutions can seriously affect the delivery of basic services such as health and education to all citizens. Moreover, governance issues related to poor management and lack of accountability present significant opportunities for corruption. These chains can limit the provision of educational services due to the low capacity to establish and manage schools, let alone ensure their long-term funding and monitoring. This can result in a shortage of appropriate infrastructure and resources in schools, unjustly excluding certain population groups.
- Socioeconomic Inequalities: Poverty and socioeconomic disparities further worsen educational poverty, as children from disadvantaged backgrounds often lack access to essential educational resources and support systems. Due to the pressing need for immediate income or basic necessities, individuals facing poverty may prioritize short-term economic survival over long-term educational investments. This can lead to irregular attendance, high dropout rates, and limited engagement in learning activities. For example, students from low-income households may be compelled to work or engage in income-generating activities to support their family’s needs, leaving them with less time and energy for studying. The lack of resources such as textbooks, computers, or educational materials can hinder their ability to effectively engage in learning. Furthermore, the time constraints faced by poor individuals can be influenced by the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Growing up in a poverty-stricken environment with limited educational opportunities can shape their perception of the value of education and lead to a cycle of temporal inconsistency in prioritizing learning.
- Conflict and Interpersonal Violence: Violent political conflicts and acts of interpersonal violence have devastating consequences on educational systems. In most situations, they lead to widespread school closures for security reasons and impose mobility restrictions. More alarmingly, schools can become the epicenter of conflicts, with physical school infrastructure severely affected. Moreover, when interpersonal violence becomes pervasive, it can be perceived as normalized, resulting in even higher levels of gender-based violence, including within schools, as well as violence against children. Schools where students most need support to foster learning are often the most affected by this violence. The challenges related to the learning crisis are thus exacerbated by concerns about the safety of students and teachers, increased mobility restrictions, and a more difficult school environment to manage. Gender-based violence in schools is a major educational problem, impacting the well-being, physical and emotional health of the child, and hindering their cognitive and emotional development, leading to low levels of learning and high dropout rates.
- Health Issues: Fragile states often have weak healthcare systems, a shortage of healthcare professionals, and inadequate essential infrastructure, making them ill-prepared to address diseases and epidemics (such as malaria and Ebola). During the COVID-19 period, 1.6 billion students were affected by school closures. In many situations, especially in certain African countries, governments and their development partners are even more financially strained than usual due to the pandemic, resulting in fewer resources for education. Additionally, inadequate nutrition and poor health have a negative impact on cognitive development and academic outcomes, preventing children from focusing, learning, and excelling in their studies.
- Demographic Factors: Rapid population growth, the urban-rural divide, and gender inequality contribute to learning poverty in Africa. Countries with a broad-based age pyramid face the additional constraint of not only seeking to improve service delivery for the current cohort but also extending services to the continuously growing number of children entering the education system. Insufficient classrooms, overcrowding, lack of sanitation facilities, and a shortage of qualified teachers contribute to creating poor learning environments that hinder educational progress.
- Climate Change: Climate change acts as a multiplier of threats, exacerbating existing tensions such as poverty, lack of employment opportunities, and local pressures on land and water resources. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and changing rainfall patterns affect agricultural productivity, food security, and livelihoods, leading to increased poverty and vulnerability. These environmental changes also disrupt educational systems, resulting in school closures, displacement, and resource shortages, impeding access to quality education and perpetuating learning poverty.
Learning poverty in Africa is deeply rooted in a complex set of factors and causes that hinder access to quality education for millions of children on the continent. In the subsequent sections, we will explore the multiple facets of the impact of learning poverty in Africa.
Impact of Learning Poverty in Africa
The learning crisis threatens countries’ efforts to build human capital, achieve shared prosperity, and reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Without foundational learning, students often struggle to thrive in school or when entering the workforce. They do not acquire the human capital they need to support their careers and economies once they leave school, nor the skills that will help them become engaged citizens and foster healthy and prosperous families. Deeply rooted, this threatens the equity and stability of a nation. Recent research estimates that three-quarters of long-term growth differences between countries can be explained by differences in population learning levels.
Economic Impact
Learning poverty has significant economic implications that, if left unaddressed, can hinder Africa’s sustainable economic development:
- Economic Dynamics: Learning poverty can have a significant impact on labor productivity, investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship in Africa. It can lead to a less skilled workforce, reducing productivity and limiting the types of industries and jobs that can thrive in the region, ultimately slowing economic growth. Moreover, countries with high levels of learning poverty may struggle to attract foreign investment. Investors often prioritize an educated and skilled workforce when making investment decisions. According to the African Development Bank Group, the lack of skilled labor is one of the main challenges faced by foreign investors in Africa. Additionally, education is a key driver of innovation and entrepreneurship, both of which are essential for economic development. Learning poverty can limit the development of high-level critical thinking skills that are crucial for innovation and entrepreneurship. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports that Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of early-stage entrepreneurial activity in the world, but these entrepreneurs often face significant challenges, including a lack of education and skills.
- Economic Mobility and Long-term Economic Impact: Education is a pillar of economic mobility for individuals and families. Without access to quality education, individuals and families can remain trapped in a cycle of poverty, limiting national economic development. A UNESCO report suggests that if all adults completed secondary education, we could lift over 420 million people out of poverty. Furthermore, the economic impact of educational poverty can be felt long after. The World Bank estimated that learning losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic could result in a loss of $17 trillion in earnings for the current generation of students worldwide. While this figure is global, the impact in Africa could be particularly severe given the high rates of educational poverty in the region.
- Income Inequality: Income inequality is a colossal challenge in Africa (according to the World Bank, Africa is the second most unequal continent in terms of income distribution), and learning poverty plays a significant role in this situation. Education is a determining factor of income, as those with higher education levels generally have better-paying jobs, while those lacking education often find themselves in lower-paying jobs or unemployed. Children likely to grow up without the basic skills needed for well-paid employment can be condemned to a life of low income.
This income inequality can lead to social instability…
Social Impact
The social impact of learning poverty is complex and profound, affecting both individuals and societies as a whole. Here are some of the key social implications:
- Health Impact: Less educated individuals are often more likely to encounter health problems due to a lack of knowledge about preventive measures, nutrition, and healthy practices. They also often have limited access to quality healthcare. This can result in higher disease rates and lower life expectancy. In low-income countries, mothers who have completed primary school are 12% more likely than mothers with no education to seek appropriate healthcare when their child has diarrhea symptoms. According to UNESCO, if all women in poor countries completed primary education, infant mortality would decrease by one-sixth, saving nearly one million lives annually. If all women completed secondary education, it would be reduced by half, saving three million lives.
- Gender Equality: Learning poverty often disproportionately affects girls, contributing to a significant expansion of gender inequality in Africa. This inequality manifests in various ways, including early marriage, early motherhood, and higher prevalence of poverty among women. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, nearly three million girls are married before the age of 15, below the legal age of marriage in most countries. Research indicates that if all young women could complete primary education, the number of child marriages could be reduced by nearly half a million. Completion of secondary education could further reduce this figure by an additional two million. Girls’ education can have a dramatic impact on child health. Between 1990 and 2009, improvements in girls’ education saved the lives of 2.1 million children under the age of 5 worldwide. Educated mothers are better informed about specific diseases and can take measures to prevent them, recognize early signs of illness, and take appropriate action. Furthermore, educated girls and young women have a greater awareness of their rights, more confidence and freedom to make decisions that affect their lives, improve their own and their children’s health, increase their chances of survival, and enhance their job prospects. In Ethiopia, 32% of girls with less than primary education are married before the age of 15, compared to less than 9% of those with secondary education. Ensuring girls stay in school is one of the most effective ways to prevent child marriage and early childbirth.
- Political Stability and Governance: High rates of learning poverty can increase the risk of political instability, corruption, social divisions, and conflicts. Learning poverty limits civic participation due to a lack of information and critical thinking skills among less educated individuals, leading to poor governance and widespread corruption. Moreover, high rates of learning poverty can contribute to social unrest and instability. Education is often a means of social mobility, and when large segments of the population are deprived of this opportunity, it can lead to frustration and eventually conflict. For example, in Somalia, a country facing prolonged conflict and instability, over 3 million school-aged children are excluded from education, increasing the risk of youth involvement in conflicts. In Sub-Saharan African countries, the risk of conflict is almost twice as high in areas where education inequality is most pronounced compared to areas with the lowest education inequality. These disparities in access to education can create tensions and socioeconomic disparities that fuel divisions and conflicts within society.
The aforementioned social and economic consequences alarmingly and urgently highlight the need to promptly address learning poverty in African countries. These impactful and profound effects call for decisive action to end this learning crisis that hinders development, fosters glaring inequalities, and compromises the future of millions of children and the entire African society.
The urgency is clear: it is imperative to ensure every child has access to quality education as it is the key to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, promoting stability, fostering equal opportunities, and enabling Africa to realize its full potential.
How do you think we should address the problems of learning poverty in Africa?
Further Reading :
1. World Bank Group (2022) – The State of Global Learning Poverty : 2022 Update https://www.unicef.org/media/122921/file/StateofLearningPoverty2022.pdf
2. World Bank Group (2022) – Safe & Learning In The Midst Of Fragility, Conflict, And Violence