Education Quality and Learning Outcomes

The Global Partnership will improve the quality of education children receive in developing countries.

In many developing countries the quality of education remains unacceptably low as children acquire knowledge at a rate of only about 20% to 25% of the rate achieved by children in richer countries. At the same time research shows that improving children's learning in school will dramatically impact their future social and economic development.

The Challenges

• Around 200 million children are currently in school in developing countries but learning very little.
• 50% of children in the lowest-income countries cannot read anything at all at the end of grade 2; in rich countries this proportion is essentially zero.
• Development actors have not yet produced clear indicators, agreed-upon processes, and results to improve quality.

Our Response will:

• Ensure that policies that address quality are integrated into national education plans in order to promote a “surge in learning” to match the“surge in access” that has taken place in the past decade;
• Develop coherent, evidence-based instruments and guidelines to improve reading skills that countries can use;
• Support our developing country partners in assessing reading and monitoring progress in quality;
• Identify the potential impact of incentives on reading achievement, using a results-based approach.