The First Lady, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame appealed for more efforts to boost foundation learning as a bedrock of education.
The First Lady, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame has called on African countries to address challenges that affect foundational learning, if the continent is to have an enlightened and educated young population.
Mrs. Kagame, who was the guest of honour at the opening of the Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX 2024), taking place at Kigali Convention Centre (KCC), under the theme “Moving Together from Commitments to Impact at Scale”, made a strong case for foundational learning, which is the development of basic literacy, numeracy, and transferable skills that are the foundation for all other learning, pointing out that Africa needs to action now, not later.
In her remarks, the First Lady, Mrs. Kagame spoke about the landscape of education on the African continent and the world, particularly foundational education – across the world, pointing out that while literacy rates have improved in all of many countries, some challenges remain when it comes to the recognition of the vital importance of early-childhood education, appropriate nutrition for infants, psychosocial support, and toddler and child development.
“Reading and comprehension (of simple text), is still an issue for 9 out of 10 of children aged 10 and below, in the majority of African countries. What a loud alarm bell this statistic rings!” the First Lady said, adding that it is worrisome when a 10 year-old cannot read properly, write properly, count properly and the same child lives in an environment that is not fertile for the development of strong personal qualities, either.
“Let us go even further still in discomfort, and picture a society, where the majority of children do not develop soft values like kindness, empathy, respect, flexibility, patience, integrity, and teamwork through foundational learning – preventing them from building healthy relationships, navigating social environments, and contributing positively in personal and professional settings.
Mrs. Kagame said if the current trend is not reversed, children are likely to be deprived of their right to early education.
“We are living in times that are, let us admit it, pulling parents in all kinds of directions, away from their core responsibility to raise families. Our children are offered up to the education system, and seldom do we engage with educators, in an attempt to create a thread of communication so that there is a sustainable continuity of care between school setting, at home, and in the community,” the First Lady said.
She pointed out that it is time the continent tapped into the expertise of her educators, to make them active stakeholders in the full context within which the child is evolving and put the child at the center of all interventions during their foundational learning age so that their individual needs are catered for.
“A collective conscience across all caregivers will help us develop protection mechanisms, while at the same time, eradicating any and all handicapping factors. This re-thinking of our approach, I believe will yield more targeted policies that address the issue at hand in a more holistic manner,” Mrs. Kagame.
The First Lady emphasized the foundational learning is pivotal in shaping the character of a child.
Addressing leaders, policymakers, academia and education advocates from across Africa as well as the globe, the First Lady said that while it is a known fact that education is the bedrock upon which skills are built and skills must be adapted to changing times, it is important that it starts at an early age, at foundational level, and it should align with the skills needed today.
“The skills that were needed for the stone age, agrarian or industrial ages are not all relevant for today’s technological age or tomorrow’s AI revolution. How we educate, train and skill our young people for the future of work and development, is critical,” Mrs. Kagame said
“This will include the policies we put in place, the agility of our curricula to adapt to the pace of changing times, the quality of teacher training, equitable resource distribution, parental and community engagement, as well as the ability to build – in the formative years of a child’s development – those precious qualities of character and confidence,” she added.
The First Lady pointed out that in an age where the human capacity for humane discourse, creativity, and intellectual curiosity are all increasingly threatened, by highly performant but sometimes regrettably applied artificial intelligence, the future young African’s mind is likely to be deprived of essential knowledge and skills.
Delegates from 35 African countries are attending the three-day summit.
“Should we fail to strengthen foundational learning and critical thinking, increase primary education completion rates, and to allocate more resources to education, specifically to the more financially-vulnerable learners, …. what is to be the long-term cost to the youth of this continent, their skills development, employability and overall welfare?” Mrs. Kagame pondered.
She said that as a consequence, the psychological and security toll across Africa will be heavy if young people of the most promising continent on earth are denied the essential tools they need to succeed and self-actualize.
“Within our individual and shared capacities, we must pledge to integrate every inspiring insight, and all valuable foresight shared today, in our efforts for improved Foundational Learning in our country and on our continent,” the said, highlighting some of the things has doing doing over the past 30 years to reverse the worrisome trend.
The First Lady pointed out that Rwanda started from scratch, given the fact that the local education system which was there before the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi was exclusionary, divisive, underfunded, fragile, and both inept and inapt.
Through poems, children made their demands to the leaders.
“At that time, higher education was dominated by one institution, the National University of Rwanda. The system graduated merely 2,000 students in three decades between 1963 and 1994. In contrast, as of 2019, there were 40 Higher Education Institutions in the country with a total enrollment of 86,140 students and growing,”
“This was a steep hill to climb, and we must recognize the political will that has fueled this investment, prioritizing the education of a previously severely illiterate population,” she said, highlighting some of the work Rwanda is doing, including her own contribution through the Imbuto Foundation which she spearheads.
Referencing the assertion that “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope and hope breeds peace”, Mrs. Kagame said that for Rwanda, diligent investment in education is a “no-brainer” because of the country’s history and difficult past
Mrs. Kagame has been at the forefront of promoting foundational learning through Imbuto Foundation which launched a pilot Early Childhood Development project in Kayonza District over 10 years ago, serving 5 areas key to child development namely brain stimulation, health, nutrition, hygiene, positive parenting, and child protection.
The First Lady said that today the programme has expanded to 14 additional districts, and Early Childhood Development (ECD) has become a national and policy priority with the launch of the National Child Development Agency (NCDA).
“With the conducive policy and planning framework set up by the Government of Rwanda, and collaboration of invaluable partners, our pilot project has translated into, a decade later, over 138,000 children and their parents having received services, through our 16 model ECD centers, and home-based services. These numbers are on a constant, yet rapid rise,” she said.
The First Lady joins dignitaries and delegates in a group photo.
“It is my deep conviction that solid early education will become all the more vital, as time advances. Achieving sustainable development will require our children, and their own, to wield every available ounce of intellectual, social and emotional intelligence, to ensure that education and growth actually translate into progress for all,” she emphasized.
To advance foundation learning, Mrs. Kagame said that it is key that African countries make ample budgetary allocations for education and infrastructure, ensure policy coordination, collaborate, train and educate educators and caregivers and revamp education systems, among other things, if they are to turn the tide.
World Bank Commits support
Dr. Victoria Kwakwa, Vice President of the World Bank for Eastern and Southern Africa, said that the gathering in Kigali demonstrates a deep and productive partnership on foundational learning between African countries and their commitment to change things.
With 34 countries joining the FLEX initiative which began in 2022, Dr. Kwakwa said there is an opportunity to act urgently and an imperative to translate several commitments that have been made by leaders at the continental and global levels to take urgent action to improve foundational learning.
“Nearly 90 percent of children in Sub-Saharan are unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. The learning crisis stems from access and quality gaps,”
“Today, 42 million primary age children across sub-Saharan Africa, remain out of school, and that number more than doubles to over 100 million when we include secondary, school-aged children. Millions more, despite being in school Fail, to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills,” Dr. Kwakwa said.
She pointed out that the magnitude of the said challenge demands unprecedented, collective action, stating that FLEX 2024 can serve as a catalyst to transform commitments into scalable impact.
“Our strategy must harness the region’s rich tapestry of innovations and evidence-based successes, by leveraging intra-African learning,” she said, adding that African countries collectively committed to reducing learning poverty by a quarter by 2030 and at the same time improve literacy skill rates to reach 75 percent by 2030.
“In this effort, the World Bank remains a committed partner to the Africa region,” she said that the global institution has allocated $7.2bn to support education in Eastern Africa.
The 3-day meeting which began on Monday, the second edition of Africa FLEX, seeks to shape the future of foundational learning in Africa. It is the largest country-to-country peer learning and knowledge exchange on African education with a focus on foundational learning.
