West Africa loses an estimated $27.8 billion in economic value as a result of children being excluded from education, the Director of Research at the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa, Dr Adedeji Adeniran, has revealed.
He said the loss translated into reduced productivity and lost future opportunities for millions of children.
He said existing interventions could help bring out-of-school children back into education if governments provided the necessary funding and leadership.
Dr Adeniran, therefore, urged African governments to increase investment in proven education innovations to address the crisis.
He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the second High Level Conference on Scaling Education Initiatives in Emergencies (EiE), West Africa (ACCELERATE+), held in Accra on Wednesday.
The conference examined evidence on education innovations and identified cost-effective interventions that could be scaled up to reach children affected by emergencies and other disruptions to learning.
Dr Adeniran said the economic and non-economic costs of education exclusion in West Africa were significant, with the estimated $27.8 billion representing a major loss to the region.
The Director of Associates for Change (AfC), Dr Leslie Hayford, said the two-day conference brought together 150 delegates from across Africa to examine education innovations that could be scaled up at low cost.
She said the conference provided a platform for researchers, educators, governments, innovators and non-governmental organisations to examine evidence on the impact of education interventions and determine which models offered the greatest potential for scaling up.
The Founder of Dignity Education in India, Dr Sunita Gandhi, said foundational literacy and numeracy could be achieved much faster and at a lower cost than was traditionally assumed.
She said research on her Accelerating Learning for All programme had shown that children could acquire basic reading skills within 45 to 60 days.
Dr Gandhi said pilot projects undertaken in Ghana, in collaboration with Associates for Change and the Olinga Foundation, had produced encouraging results, with discussions underway to scale up the intervention.
“Every child has a right to learn to read, write and do basic arithmetic,” she emphasised.
She said failure to provide those foundational skills would have serious consequences for families, communities and countries.
For her part, the Deputy Executive Director of Support Services at the Complementary Education Agency, Mrs Patience Effie Abue Dogbey, said the conference had produced recommendations to guide efforts to reach children who were out of school.
She said the Agency would strengthen the integration of education in emergencies into policy and improve collaboration with non-governmental organisations and development partners.
BY STEPHANIE BIRIKORANG
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