“Children need the opportunity to be read to and read a wide variety of books, including books decodable and leveled readers and informational texts. They need to read books that are both mirrors and windows, reflecting their local languages and contexts and exposing them to transformative ideas and worlds beyond their own. Most importantly, they need to read books with the support of a knowledgeable teacher and parents or caregivers.”
On International Women’s Day, the Global Book Alliance joined government and multilateral organization representatives at the 2021 Annual Commonwealth Day Lecture. The talk, given by founding co-chairs of the International Parliamentary Network for Education, Senator Dr. Getrude Musuruve of Kenya and Harriett Baldwin, Member of Parliament (MP) of the United Kingdom, focused on action to deliver the global promise of quality education for all, and highlighted the importance of girls' education and reading.
Progress on education is at a crossroads and the global education crisis has only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Opening the lecture, MP Baldwin (UK) noted that even before Covid-19, the education crisis included, “260 million children who weren’t in school and hundreds of millions more who go to school where the quality of learning is so poor that they never acquire even the most basic skills. In low and lower-middle-income countries more than half of 10-year-olds cannot read a simple text.” Girls, in particular, lack access. Of the estimated 59 million primary school-aged children out of school, over half are girls, both because they never entered school or dropped out, due to societal pressures such as early marriage. UNESCO estimates that as many as 11 million girls may not return to the classroom in the wake of Covid-19.
“Ensuring that children have access to books is an essential ingredient to achieving the proposed G7 goal of getting 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10.”
Senator Dr. Musuruve (Kenya) underscored that reality, “Across the world we expect children to learn how to read without books with which to do so.” The little research that exists suggests Musuruve is right. Studies found that titles in many local African languages are scarce, and access to titles are limited to just 2% of children around the world. With so few books in homes and without the opportunity to learn to read in school, the likely result is large numbers of girls who never learn to read. Musuruve went on to say that ensuring that children have access to books at school and at home is an essential ingredient to achieving the proposed G7 goal of getting 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10, and that books play an important role in helping girls overcome gender inequity - by helping them build literacy skills critical to challenging gender norms that limit their opportunities.
MP Baldwin said, “In order to prevent the worst education outcomes, and mitigate the additional pressure on already overstretched education systems, we urgently need to protect education financing.” Baldwin explained that as lower-income countries face growing populations, high poverty rates and the recent social and economic impacts of COVID-19 it is imperative that they receive focused support to accelerate educational progress. GBA partner the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) provides such focused support. In fact, Baldwin notes, “To receive funding from GPE, governments must commit to increasing the amount they spend on education to around nearly one-fifth of total government expenditure.”
In Kenya, support from GPE has been vital in accelerating educational progress. Senator Dr. Musuruve credited GPE with helping to “remove the biggest barriers to learning, and address[ing] the needs of the populations groups which were furthest behind.” Since 2017, of the 60 million textbooks that have been distributed to primary and secondary schools in Kenya, more than 10 million were directly supported by GPE. These and other measures, such as USAID’s Tusome Early Grade Reading Project, have helped Kenya increase access to early grade reading material.
Both speakers laid out actions attendees could take to address the education crisis. MP Baldwin urged the UK to pledge to global partnerships dedicated to addressing these challenges. The Global Book Alliance is one such global effort, which aims to make books available, appropriate, affordable, and accessible to all, regardless of location, gender, disability, or access to technology.
Senator Dr. Musuruve concluded the lecture by inviting world leaders to come together across regional divides to “unite behind the power of investing in education; using our collective voice to press for the imperative of increasing financing for education at home and abroad; as well as scrutinizing via parliamentary oversight how funding is spent.”
Photo credit: www.bookaid.org - Kenya Libraries 2015