Although I work from my home office in Atlanta, Georgia, the nature of my role as Chief Impact Officer at a global education nonprofit means I am deeply connected to the state of education in districts thousands of miles away. That was true before a global pandemic disrupted learning around the globe.
As students at home and abroad look to recover a year of learning loss, now is not the time to take our foot off the pedal. That’s why Congress’ proposed funding levels for bilateral U.S. government Basic Education programs is deeply discouraging.
Recently, the Senate released its FY22 State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) appropriations bill which includes $682,448,000 for Basic Education. If enacted, this would represent a 34 percent decrease from FY21 levels and far below the House of Representatives’ proposal of $950 million. At a time when our nation is on the precipice of recovery from an unprecedented pandemic, there is an argument that such high levels of funding for education abroad is unwise – an argument that surely influenced the Senators’ decision. I’d argue a shortchange of education will cost us far more.
Like it or not we live in a global society and what happens overseas impacts our communities. According to UNICEF, approximately 168 million children worldwide have missed almost all of classroom instruction since the pandemic began. It could take upwards of five years to catch these students up on what they missed. We can’t exacerbate an already tenuous situation by shortchanging students at this critical moment.
We face critical challenges in global health and climate change. How can we expect to develop the next great climate scientist when we live in a world where 773 million youth around the world can’t read or write?
Some might argue that the rapid acceleration of technology means we don’t have to invest as much in global education. To be sure, I’m very enthusiastic about the significant role technology can play in our society. My organization, Worldreader, uses technology as a vehicle to bring reading resources to communities where they are scarce and improve their digital literacy. But if I have learned one thing in my 20 years in this work, it’s that you can’t throw technology into communities and let children, parents and teachers fend for themselves.
Despite growing mobile internet connectivity, Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSMA) estimates that 3.4 billion people are not using mobile internet in part because of lack of digital literacy. If the last year has taught us anything it should be that integrating technology must be accompanied with a long-term commitment to reducing these barriers to adoption. My organization works with mobile network operators to support reading ecosystems, offering offline usage and digital literacy training.
I’ve seen firsthand how Basic Education funding can make a difference in how kids learn in underdeveloped communities. In 2012, Worldreader received USAID support that gave villages across Ghana a foundation for reading and learning. We developed a district-wide digital reading system and provided world-class educators to help schools adopt these systems to develop a culture of reading. This funding not only paid for the technology – it supported training so that educators, parents and children alike could learn to use these tools. It was inspiring to see these children, many who had never even held a book before let alone a tablet, see reading as a fun and enriching activity. In some cases, we saw them join book clubs that exposed them to new ideas and tackled some of the gender stereotypes that exist in their countries.
The same barriers that hinder a culture of reading in the Global South exist in our own backyards. One of the things we learned globally is that education is not contained only within the classroom – it must be reinforced at home. Parents working two or three jobs just to make ends meet don’t have the luxury to take their children to the library. They may not have the money to afford high-speed internet let alone a computer. What they do have in most cases are smartphones. According to Pew Research, 71 percent of adults earning less than $30K per year in the United States own a smartphone. With proper funding, organizations like Worldreader can partner with local nonprofits to distribute reading programs to families on the phones they already own – and know how to use.
Intervention has proven outcomes in increasing reading literacy among under resourced children which in turn increases their chances for success later in life. Worldreader’s initial USAID supported work in Ghana allowed the organization to engage in other USG projects in Kenya and Zambia, positively impacting reading outcomes for vulnerable students. The GirlsRead! Zambia project, in particular, was a huge success. The girls who engaged in digital reading in the classroom improved their reading abilities significantly (23.3 percent vs 14.4 percent control) and developed more equitable gender beliefs (27.4 percent vs. 10.9 percent).
We no longer live in a disconnected world. Every choice we make as a society has a long-term impact. If we don’t fund education abroad now, we are setting the next generation up to fail. Funding basic education needs like reading, writing and digital skills now is an investment for future stability globally. Let’s not throw away this opportunity.
Rebecca Chandler Leege is Chief Impact Officer at Worldreader, a global nonprofit that uses technology to promote reading where books are scarce.
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