NewGlobe, the technical partner of Bridge Liberia, is stepping up its efforts to transform education by co-hosting an  event on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly that would explore outcomes to help increase the quality of education in low- and middle-income countries. The event, co-hosted in partnership with Devex, will also shine a light on what is needed to equip everyone from teachers to education ministries with the data tools needed to drive improved learning outcomes for all. The  event takes place on September 20, 2023 in New York.

This event is being held in the aftermath of a groundbreaking study led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Michael Kremer that found stunning gains in the standardized instruction model used by NewGlobe to underpin better learning results.

The study shows that Proffessor Kremer and his team interacted with 10,000 students for two years in schools supported by NewGloble in Kenya and found that attending NewGlobe schools doubled student learning so that students gained nearly two years of learning in the course of a single school year. The jump was even more significant in early childhood and for students from lower-income families.

The randomized design means that the students who had the opportunity to attend NewGlobe schools were otherwise a peer-to-peer comparison with those who did not. And some of the results were pretty remarkable. While the World Bank reports that 90 percent of 10-year-olds in Sub-Saharan Africa can’t read, for instance, the researchers found that 82 percent of NewGlobe students in grade 1 were able to read a sentence. The comparative figure for the control group was 27 percent.

NewGlobe works across Africa and Asia, supporting visionary governments to improve education for the young generation with a similar teaching model across its programs.

The NewGlobe model empowers teachers through capacity building and the provision of learning materials including technology to enable them deliver world class lessons to students even in the most remote communities in Africa and Asia.

In Liberia, a government school teacher supported by Bridge Liberia is well trained in  teaching principles, techniques and technological skills that a contemporary teacher needs for  effective delivery of learning materials in the classroom.

Given the high level of educational poverty in low and middle income countries with statistics showing about more than half of children in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to read and understand a story by the end of primary school, there is a need for an ambitious transformation of the education sector, which is still recovering from the impact of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With an eye on having a shot at achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030, experts say go-getting learning recovery and acceleration are pivotal in spite of the desire to return to pre COVID-19 status quo.

The current education system is at capacity and the demand is only set to increase, with nearly 750 million children expected to be of school age by 2060. This shift will strain education budgets and increase the need for sustained investment in quality education.

Experts note that the education gap is also a data gap. According to UNESCO, there is no information on the learning levels of two-thirds of children across sub-Saharan Africa. Gathering and analyzing data is an essential first step for improving learning outcomes, and recent interventions show that progress is possible if efforts focus on classroom practices informed by evidence and data that is tangible and easy to interpret for teachers and policymakers alike.

Shannon May, president and co-founder, NewGlobe Education is expected to speak at the event.