New GSF/Ed Dev Trust report highlights urgent need to safeguard schools serving poor communities in low-income countries
Today (12 October 2021) Global Schools Forum and Education Development Trust have published a joint report examining how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted non-state schools, teachers and learners in countries across Africa, Asia and South America.
The non-state schools’ sector (which includes schools run by NGOs, community schools, and low-cost private schools) is an important component of global education capacity. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, around 1 in 5 primary school children, and 1 in 4 secondary school children, were educated in the sector, often including those from the very poorest communities.
Key findings from the research, which draws on a survey of school operators in 17 countries, and in-depth interviews with school leaders in India, Nigeria and Kenya include:
- More than 3 in 4 schools surveyed are experiencing financial difficulties, caused by reduced income from fees, and a need to meet costs associated with delivering learning in new ways during closures and implementing safety measures prior to re-opening. Networks with fewer schools, schools with lower enrolment, and schools that charge lower fees reported the greatest impact on their income.
- More than 1 in 3 schools surveyed reported that teachers had resigned or been made redundant during the pandemic. Many teachers had not received their full salary. It remains to be seen whether teachers will return to the profession once schools re-open, or whether this will have longer-term implications for the supply of teachers in low-income countries, compounding the “learning crisis” that existed prior to COVID-19.
- School leaders surveyed estimated that children had lost between 5 and 8 months of learning, a figure that will inevitably have increased since the data was collected in April 2021.
- Schools reported mixed experiences in maintaining students' access to learning during closures. Whilst over half of school leaders surveyed in India reported that the majority of their students were able to keep learning during closures, this benchmark was achieved by only 11 out of 60 Nigerian schools surveyed and 3 of 60 Kenyan schools surveyed. Among GSF school operators, 21 out of 22 maintained learners' access to education for the majority of students, with 14 of these reporting that access was maintained for more than three quarters of their students.
The report argues that urgent action is required, and recommends that governments and development funders should:
- Take action to improve the financial support available to the non-state education sector, including through subsidised loans and credit.
- Support educational recovery through including non-state schools in remedial programmes aimed at mitigating learning loss.
- Build the longer-term resilience of the non-state education sector, particularly among smaller networks of schools and stand-alone schools.
The findings of the report will be discussed at an event on Thursday 14 October – with speakers from GSF and Ed Dev Trust being joined by colleagues from UNICEF, Opportunity International EduFinance, and the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report.
This report highlights the devastating impact that the pandemic has had on children’s learning, teachers’ wellbeing and the ability of many schools to survive. Urgent action is required to prevent non-state schools from closure, and to help children make up the learning time they have lost. If governments and development partners fail to act now, we risk undermining years of progress in increasing access to education.
For Education Development Trust, this is the third in a series of reports we have produced exploring how Covid-19 has tested education systems. Our intention is always to shine a light on solutions to complex issues. This report focuses on the non-state sector, largely ignored by the educational community throughout the pandemic. It provides considerations for policy and practice.