Spotlight on basic education completion and foundational learning in Africa, 2022: born to learn

This publication is the first in a three-part Spotlight series. It is produced by a partnership between the Global Education Monitoring Report, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa and the African Union. It synthesises evidence on completion rates and minimum learning proficiency levels on the continent, informing the debate on national benchmarks for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA). It aims to inspire national dialogue and a peer learning mechanism in continental institutions on foundational learning. The 2022 Spotlight Report draws on five country reports, covering the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal, and case studies on the Central African Republic (language of instruction), Kenya (district education officers), Madagascar (school feeding), Malawi (textbooks), Sao Tome and Principe (early childhood education), Sierra Leone (learning assessment) and South Sudan (teachers). The report focuses on why learning levels in the region are low. All children are born to learn yet only one in five children in Africa who reach the end of primary school achieve the minimum proficiency level required to continue their education and fulfil their potential. Combining completion and learning statistics, the report shows that children in Africa are at least five times less likely than children in the rest of the world to be prepared for the future. Given the historically low levels of learning on the continent, fresh thinking is needed to translate the CESA and SDG 4 commitments into focused, coordinated, well-informed and appropriately funded actions. The report contains eight policy-oriented recommendations for driving change.