Development Aid: Basic Skills

(asked on 22nd February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2021 to Question 85319, in addition to the EQUIP-T programme, which other UK bilateral education programmes have achieved improvements to learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy at scale.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 28th February 2022

Improving learning outcomes is a priority for UK AID, and we are working bilaterally and with international partners to help education systems improve learning at scale, especially for most marginalised children.

Having competent, creative and well-supported teachers is one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to get girls' learning. In Ghana, our bilateral programme has supported the Government's Teacher Education Policy reforms, making teaching a degree profession for the first time and putting in place new National Teaching Standards. To date, these nation-wide reforms have improved teaching practices of 70,000 student teachers and 1,500 teacher educators. In northern Nigeria, the UK has been working in partnership with State Governments, British Council, Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund to ensure schools are 'teaching at the right level'. This proven cost-effective remedial strategy provides dedicated time for children to master basic skills, alongside regular assessment of students' progress. This approach is now being replicated across several States in northern Nigeria. In Malawi, the UK is supporting the government's reform of the primary school maths curriculum; developing new teaching and learning materials; training all teachers nationwide; and establishing ongoing school-based support. This will benefit over 3.2 million students and over 40,000 teachers nationwide.

We are also working with like-minded partners internationally to ensure better use of education evidence and learning data. Our new Global Education What Works Hub is supporting the generation and use of evidence to understand what education interventions work in what contexts, and how these can be scaled effectively to deliver learning at scale for all.

Reticulating Splines