Literacy for All in the Digital Era
Education Cannot Wait funding through its strategic partners provides foundational learning opportunities for the world’s most vulnerable children to bridge the digital divide.
As we celebrate this year’s International Literacy Day – with the common theme to promote literacy in the digital era – we must not forget the 234 million children living on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises who so urgently need our support in accessing quality education.
Reading is the fundamental building block for all learning. For these girls and boys, learning to read means a chance out of poverty, learning to write means a chance to become the leaders that will build a better tomorrow, and learning to use digital tools means a chance to build the skillsets and critical thinking needed to thrive in the fast-changing world of the 21st century.
Efforts by governments, donors, UN agencies, civil society, the private sector and local organizations are providing us with hope. In 1979, only 68% of the world population knew how to read, according to UNESCO. That number has jumped to 86% today. Nevertheless, 250 million children are still not able to read basic texts, with the needs even more pronounced for crisis-impacted children.
As we embrace a digital shift, limited access to technologies, electricity and quality learning environments risks leaving even more children behind. Only a third of primary schools in sub-Saharan have electricity. Imagine what it must be like for a girl living in a displacement camp in places like Burkina Faso or Sudan
Results with Impact
To address these collective challenges, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and its strategic donor partners are funding programmes to provide children impacted by the compounding risks of conflict, climate change and forced displacement with foundational learning opportunities. Our investment in teaching these children to read and write is our investment in breaking cycles of hunger, poverty, displacement and insecurity, now and forever. It is our collective investment in the transformational power of education.
Across ECW’s portfolio, we are seeing results with impact. In all, 88% of ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes reported improved learning outcoming in literacy and/or numeracy.
One example comes from Uganda, where lower primary school students supported through ECW investments saw an increase from 18% to 34% in basic reading skills. In upper primary levels, reading competency more than doubled, from 40% to 83%, with girls outperforming boys (38% vs. 31%). Refugee children are seeing strong results. Literacy in refugee schools improved from 7% to 34% for lower primary, and from 33% to 83% for upper primary.
At ECW-supported schools in Niger, sixth graders saw a 10% increase in math and 24% jump in French when compared to “control schools.”
In Pakistan, ECW is investing in Accelerated Learning Programmes to help crisis-impacted children who had dropped out of school catch up on their education. Upon entering these Accelerated Learning Programmes, children could only answer 20% of assessment questions but, by the endline, scores had improved to 59% – with girls improving from 20% to 60% and boys from 19% to 56%.
For these children, literacy isn’t just about memorization or reading books. It’s about understanding and developing the critical thinking skills they need to adapt to our fast-changing world. Literacy is the foundation of peace and resilience – especially in the face of global challenges like climate change – and thus needs to be a cornerstone of support to children and adolescents caught up in crises. ECW has the funding mechanisms and partnerships in place to continue to support these vital efforts but needs additional financing in order to scale up and sustain these initiatives to keep hope alive for the world’s most vulnerable children.
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