Arsalan Abid LUMS 100 ESSAY 26110030

What are the main reasons for the 'learning crisis' and what would be your
suggestions on how to address it?
Give at least 5 reasons and 3 suggestions.

The learning crisis refers to the harsh reality that although most children around the world attend

school and are getting basic primary education, many of them are still not learning. The World

Bank estimates that around 53 percent of 10-year-olds in low and medium-income countries

cannot understand and comprehend a single text by the end of their primary schools. Many of the

children then face difficulties in overcoming this initial handicap, while others lose confidence in

themselves. So why has this learning crisis persisted all these decades despite the modern

technologies and development?

The primary cause of the learning crisis is the insufficient time and effort spent by educational

institutions on the development of children's fundamental abilities and skills. Instead, children

are introduced to the idea of "rote-learning" at a young age and are only required to cram the

curriculum from one class to the next throughout their primary education years. Furthermore,

despite the significant learning differences between privileged and underprivileged children

(such as rich and poor, ethnolinguistic majorities and minorities, boys and girls, and residents of

urban and rural areas), these differences are much smaller than the differences between average

learning levels and targets for fundamental literacy.

Schools now have a new class of students whose parents didn't go to school and who have a lot

on their plates, but the teaching strategies haven't been appropriately adjusted to the context
(language, culture, and so on). The curriculum frequently lacks relevance to children's lives, and

school schedules frequently conflict with local events like the agricultural seasons, when kids

frequently assist their family. In other words, the traditional educational approach has not been

able to meet the needs of emerging populations.

A lack of teachers and their training and qualifications is a prominent factor related to the global

educational crisis. Particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, government efforts have led to

skyrocketing enrollment rates in primary schools over the past 25 years. However, the growth in

the number of teachers has not kept pace with these new attendees. With a surge in class sizes,

instruction quality has suffered. In sub-Saharan Africa, the pupil to teacher ratio was 42:1 in

2012. (1) Not only are Latin American and African schools burdened by a shortage of teachers,

but also teachers who are unavailable to their students. a study by the World Bank found that

teachers in state-run primary schools in some African countries were absent 15-25% of the time.

Furthermore, many teachers lack the qualifications to teach students. In Ethiopia, one study

found that only 43% of lower primary school teachers were adequately trained and only a

startling 1% of teachers in the Somali region were trained.

Fortunately, there have been various efforts at controlling and minimizing the adverse effects of
this global learning crisis, but further improvements can certainly be made. Firstly, the
government and international institutions should contribute in training and motivating teachers
and reinstating their purpose and the importance that they hold on to the future lives and
development of millions of young children. Secondly, the syllabi should be carefully assessed,
and its content re-evaluated. This new and improved curriculum should be equipped to teachers
with the aim of focused learning. "Given the essential role they play, addressing the learning
crisis requires supporting teachers, who are the single most important driver of how much
students learn in school." (2)
Setting up or strengthening regular national learning assessment instruments is an absolute

necessity, especially in the primary cycle. The objectives are to measure progress and to provide

early warning if quality deteriorates. These tools can also inform educational managers and

planners about the effectiveness of measures to restore the quality of learning. For example, to

what extent have school results evolved following a reform of pedagogical approaches, an

increase in book provision, or the implementation of an improvement program in reading and

math? The results are often difficult to interpret but have the merit of focusing the attention of

stakeholders on issues to do with quality.

Hence, in recent decades, the global community has become increasingly concerned about the

state of education. Despite these astounding successes, the problems outlined above mean that

millions of children are still denied their basic right to education. While there is no quick and

simple recipe for curing the broken global education system, there are constructive steps that

must be taken to move forward and which many organizations are taking. Nonetheless, it is

sufficient to say that the global learning crisis is an economic and moral crisis as well.
(1) 5 Reasons for the Global Education Crisis | Edify

(2)The Education Crisis: Being in School Is Not the Same as Learning (worldbank.org)