More African children enter school, yet nine in 10 cannot read

Nine in 10 children in sub-Saharan Africa face learning poverty, with the World Bank estimating that 89 per cent cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10.

The figure is putting pressure on education leaders to shift their focus from getting children into school to ensuring they acquire basic skills once they enter the classroom.

The challenge exposes a gap between school enrolment and actual learning, despite efforts over the past two decades to expand access to education.

The challenge has shifted attention from simply getting children into classrooms to what happens once they are there.

For Bridge International Academies Foundation, the answer starts with the teacher.

The organisation's Group Managing Director, Reuben Mwangi, says sustained teacher training, classroom coaching and better teaching tools can help close the learning gap.

“What closes that gap is a teacher who is well trained, equipped with strong tools and supported week after week. Every other investment in education depends on that relationship,” Mwangi says.

Bridge provides education in underserved communities in Kenya and has trained more than 19,410 teachers and school leaders through its capacity-building programmes, according to the organisation.

Mwangi argues that a well trained and supported teacher can identify struggling pupils, adjust lessons and give learners the help they need to make progress.

“At Bridge International Academies Foundation, we see this every day. Pupils with well trained and supported teachers learn more,” he notes.

The organisation's training focuses on four areas: delivering lessons, checking whether pupils understand the work, giving feedback and motivating learners.

Teachers practise the skills during training before trainers observe them in classrooms and provide feedback. Coaching continues after teachers return to their classrooms.

The approach also seeks to keep pupils engaged during lessons. Teachers give children time to think before answering questions, move around classrooms to identify those who need help and use questioning techniques that keep learners involved.

Technology supports the approach through digital teacher tablets containing lesson guides aligned with Kenya's Competency Based Education (CBE) system.

The tablets also provide information that can help teachers identify pupils who are falling behind and respond before learning gaps widen.

“Technology supports all of this, but it never replaces the teacher,” Mwangi explains.

An independent study led by Nobel laureate Professor Michael Kremer found that children in Bridge schools in Kenya gained 53 per cent more learning across their pre-primary and primary years, according to the organisation.

After two years, primary pupils had gained an additional year of learning compared with pupils in other schools, while pre-primary pupils recorded a gain of nearly one and a half years.

Bridge also reported that 88.64 per cent of its primary learners met or exceeded expectations in their 2025 level examinations.

Mwangi argues that education investment should focus on how effectively resources reach the classroom and whether they improve what children learn.

“Classroom data should help teachers understand where pupils need support, rather than become another mechanism for policing performance,” he adds.

He calls on governments to strengthen teacher preparation and professional development while schools and education organisations provide teachers with the time, tools and coaching needed to improve their practice.

He also urges parents, communities and employers to help strengthen the status of teaching as a profession.

“Enrolment opened the door. Teachers are how children walk through it and learn,” Mwangi observes.