15 June, 2011 – Millions more children in developing countries are enrolled in school today as compared to ten years ago, but they are not learning enough. This seriously hampers their ability to prosper in work, in the community and in life. Too many children leave primary school practically illiterate, and developing country governments, education experts, international organizations, donors and the private sector have to work steadily together to fight the ‘global learning crisis’, according to a new report by the Brookings Institute.

The Washington-based think tank published ‘A Global Compact on Learning’ after almost a year of consultations with the most important stakeholders in the field of international education. Research shows that progress in children’s literacy skills has been highly uneven within countries, with the children from higher-income families still benefitting most. Poor girls, especially those in areas affected by conflict, are the most disadvantaged as they are the first ones to drop out of schools and have the lowest learning levels. Carol Bellamy, Chair of the FTI Board of Directors and one of the panelists commenting on the report at the launch event, remarked that there should be new political leadership to tackle this agenda. “As set out by the education Millennium Development Goals, there has been so much focus on access to education, much less so on learning”, she said. “There is an education and learning crisis. We know for example that only in two out of 27 FTI countries, children are approaching the international reading standards”.

The Brookings report sets out three policy priorities to promote learning which should be adapted to the local context; support early childhood development (including health and nutrition interventions), ensure basic numeracy and literacy skills, and, enable young people to transition from primary to secondary education. It also calls for all key interest groups to work closely together and play their respective roles to enact the policy priorities. The report mentions how a reformed EFA FTI is the centerpiece for international cooperation in education. Ms. Bellamy noted that ‘we know what should be done’. “The consensus is now on learning”, she added. “EFA FTI is about the compact; about working as a partnership in countries. The most important thing will be to get strong international political leadership for this, which is now lacking.”