Numeracy

Why Invest in Numeracy?

Basic numerical and mathematical skills are important to further education. They also improve the potential of individuals to find good jobs. Countries need a skilled workforce to advance in science and technology, which are in turn important factors for economic development.

But the world is facing a global math crisis. Low-income countries perform poorly in international numeracy or mathematics skills comparisons. Children in these countries sometimes cannot even recognize basic numbers.

The Challenge

• Low-income countries end up in the bottom end in global large-scale skill assessments such as TIMSS and PISA.
• The average student in lower-income countries performs worse than the 5th percentile in higher-income countries. These children end up learning basic math skills by grade 6, instead of grades 2 or 3. (Results for Learning Report 2012)
• Early grade assessments, like the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) have also shown that poor performance is often rooted in a failure to master basic mathematics competencies.
• The 2011 Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER) in India showed that close to 73% of students in rural India could not recognize numbers past 9.
• 69% of Malawian second graders could not identify the number “6” (EGMA 2010)

Our Response

GPE partners work closely together on numeracy and early grade mathematics. The third strategic objective in GPE’s Strategic Plan 2012-2015 aims for:

Our Global and Regional Activities program also aims to improve numeracy among GPE partner countries.

Specifically, we:

• Have created a virtual community of practice where experts from a network of organizations exchange knowledge and best practice on early grade mathematics.
• Collect good evidence-based practices of early grade mathematics teaching, interventions, and assessments and share them with our member countries.
• Raise awareness about the numeracy emergency.