Radar | Oct 23,2023
Sep 10 , 2022
By Kevin Watkins
As children across Europe and the United States start a new school year, the world’s governments are gearing up for their own big education moment. At the United Nations Transforming Education Summit, they have a chance to tackle a global learning crisis that has been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic and rising levels of child poverty and malnutrition.
They should start by mobilising behind an old cause with an urgent new resonance: the provision of free school meals to children who would otherwise be left too hungry to learn.
Pandemic school closures deprived hundreds of millions of children of learning opportunities. Poorer countries closed their classrooms for longer than richer countries, with one to two entire school years lost across much of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. And in rich and poor countries alike, opportunities for remote learning were heavily skewed towards children in wealthier households.
With schools reopening, the scale of the learning losses triggered by school closures is coming fully to light, along with evidence of widening inequalities. Data from poorer countries point to devastating declines from already-abysmal levels. The World Bank estimates that the share of 10-year-olds who are unable to read a simple story has risen from a pre-pandemic level of 57pc to over 70pc. One recent study in Malawi found that seven months of school closure led to a loss of more than two years’ worth of foundational learning, with children forgetting concepts mastered before lockdown.
Millions of children are returning to school carrying the triple burden of lost learning, increased poverty, and malnutrition. Hunger was rising even before the Russian war on Ukraine added another inflationary twist to the global food crisis. Applying the Food & Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) regional estimates to Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia suggests that 179 million school-age children were living with hunger in 2021 – an increase of 35 million from 2020. In Africa’s case, almost one-quarter of school-age children were suffering from undernutrition.
Nor is this crisis restricted to the Global South. In the US, the number of children living in households struggling to put food on the table has increased dramatically over pre-pandemic levels, from 12 million to 18 million. In the United Kingdom, the debate about the cost-of-living crisis has focused mostly on energy prices. But food-price inflation has also squeezed household incomes and left more children hungry. The proportion of children living in food-insecure homes in the UK rose from 12pc to 17pc in the first quarter of 2022 alone, according to Food Foundation surveys. As heating bills and food costs rise, the UK is facing an Autumn child hunger crisis.
For poor and rich countries alike, undernutrition now represents a formidable – and fast-rising – barrier to recovery in learning. As every parent and teacher understands, hungry children struggle to learn. They are more likely to drop out of school, less likely to realise their potential, and at greater risk of being trapped in lifelong cycles of deprivation.
There is an antidote, though. Well-designed and properly financed free school-meal programmes can protect children against hunger, unlocking the benefits of education. There is overwhelming evidence that school feeding can increase attendance, reduce dropout rates, and improve learning outcomes, especially for the poorest children. An evaluation of Ghana’s programme found that it increased average learning across the board, with children living in extreme poverty making the greatest gains – the equivalent of nine months of schooling.
The benefits of effective school-meal programmes extend beyond education and across generations. India’s Midday Meal scheme – the world’s largest school-feeding programme – has raised learning levels, partly by creating incentives to keep girls in education. Recent evidence has shown that girls covered by the MDM also married and had children later, made greater use of health services, and had children who were less likely to be stunted.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many developing countries were expanding school-meal programmes, albeit from a low base. In Africa, where around one-quarter of children were covered by such programmes, governments had adopted ambitious plans for expanding access. Unfortunately, many of these plans have now been shelved, as unsustainable debt, slower growth, and reduced revenues have shrunk governments’ fiscal space, weakening support for children in a moment of desperate need.
Richer countries were able to use their school-meal programmes to protect vulnerable children during the pandemic. For the first time in its 75-year history, the National School Lunch Program in the US was made available to all children without means of testing. And in the UK, the soccer player Marcus Rashford cajoled a reluctant government into providing meal support during school holidays. Sadly, these concessions are now being diluted or withdrawn even as hunger increases.
What’s needed now is a global movement for school meals. At this month’s Transforming Education Summit, governments should commit themselves to the goal of universal provision of free school meals.
For the poorest countries, reaching that goal will require international support. The School Meals Coalition estimates that 5.8 billion dollars a year will be needed to restore programmes disrupted by Covid-19 and to expand provision to an additional 73 million children. The summit provides an opportunity for governments, aid donors, the World Bank, and other multilateral development banks to specify how they will fill the financing gaps. They should start by backing former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s proposal for a new education financing facility.
PUBLISHED ON
Sep 10,2022 [ VOL
23 , NO
1167]
Radar | Oct 23,2023
Radar | Jul 27,2019
Radar | Mar 04,2023
Life Matters | Jul 30,2022
Viewpoints | Jan 01,2022
Fortune News | Oct 02,2021
My Opinion | Apr 09,2023
View From Arada | May 08,2021
Verbatim | Jan 16,2021
Radar | Sep 04,2022
Photo Gallery | 96059 Views | May 06,2019
Photo Gallery | 88332 Views | Apr 26,2019
My Opinion | 66972 Views | Aug 14,2021
Commentaries | 65708 Views | Oct 02,2021
My Opinion | Apr 13,2024
Feb 24 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
Abel Yeshitila, a real estate developer with a 12-year track record, finds himself unable to sell homes in his latest venture. Despite slash...
Feb 10 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
In his last week's address to Parliament, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) painted a picture of an economy...
Jan 7 , 2024
In the realm of international finance and diplomacy, few cities hold the distinction that Addis Abeba doe...
Sep 30 , 2023 . By AKSAH ITALO
On a chilly morning outside Ke'Geberew Market, Yeshi Chane, a 35-year-old mother cradling her seven-month-old baby, stands amidst the throng...
Apr 13 , 2024
In the hushed corridors of the legislative house on Lorenzo Te'azaz Road (Arat Kilo)...
Apr 6 , 2024
In a rather unsettling turn of events, the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (C...
Mar 30 , 2024
Ethiopian authorities find themselves at a crossroads in the shadow of a global econo...
Mar 23 , 2024
Addis Abeba has been experiencing rapid expansion over the past two decades. While se...
Apr 13 , 2024
A severe financial stranglehold has been imposed on the banking industry, underminin...
Apr 13 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
In an unprecedented move, the central bank has published its inaugural stress test report, uncovering potential fault lines within the finan...
Apr 13 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
In a bold departure from its historical position on foreign investment, the federal government has opened...
Apr 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
A proposed excise tax stamp system draws controversy amongst industry leaders in the alcohol, tobacco, be...