Disasters interrupt schooling regularly in parts of Africa: here’s a solution
Format
Visiting International Scholar in International Studies & Political Science, Dickinson College
Schools are among the worst institutional casualties of complex disasters. This has been the obvious case with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Boko Haram insurgency and other violent conflicts in Africa, which have caused the suspension and destruction of schools.
Countless schools have been damaged, closed or destroyed. Untold millions of students have been forced to suspend or to abandon their education because of violence or the pandemic. These disruptions have further blighted the already precarious educational foundation of the continent.
Schools are among the worst institutional casualties of complex disasters. This has been the obvious case with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Boko Haram insurgency and other violent conflicts in Africa, which have caused the suspension and destruction of schools.
Countless schools have been damaged, closed or destroyed. Untold millions of students have been forced to suspend or to abandon their education because of violence or the pandemic. These disruptions have further blighted the already precarious educational foundation of the continent.
So what’s the most cost-effective way to address this enormous challenge?
In an area confronting the Boko Haram uprising in north eastern Nigeria, we used a combination of radio and computer tablets to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of 22,000 children forced out of school.
Chirantan Chatterjee, Eric Hanushek, Shreekanth Mahendiran
Children in many extremely poor, remote regions are growing up illiterate and innumerate despite high reported school enrolment ratios (Pritchett 2013, Glewwe and Muralidharan 2016). This phenomenon of ‘schooling without learning’ has many alleged sources, such as insufficient demand, inadequate schooling materials, and a lack of qualified, motivated teachers. These factors are resulting in a substantial part of developing countries’ populations being illiterate and innumerate. The consequences of this phenomenon are dire: for these groups, lower lifetime incomes are expected as a result, and less opportunity to succeed in the growing worlds around them; and for the rest of the world, greater socioeconomic inequality.