Pre-schools boost learning outcomes and literacy levels

Class one pupils of Central Primary School in Kisumu, after receiving books distributed by Kenya Literature Bureau on January 09, 2019. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Countries across Sub-Saharan Africa have made impressive progress towards achieving universal school enrolment over the past few decades. But schooling isn’t the same as learning.

Recent studies reveal that children in this region learn remarkably little at school. For example, only one in five third-grade students in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have second-grade literacy and numeracy skills, and less than one third of sixth-grade students in Southern and Eastern Africa can solve a simple subtraction problem.