Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Clement Apaak, has called for greater investment in evidence-based interventions to ensure children affected by conflict, climate shocks, displacement and other emergencies do not lose access to education.
He said West Africa must move beyond emergency responses driven solely by urgency and instead invest in interventions that have been tested and shown to improve learning outcomes, particularly for vulnerable children.
Dr Apaak made the call in a keynote address delivered on behalf of the Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, at the 2nd High-Level Conference on Scaling Education Initiatives in Emergencies (EiE), ACCELERATE+, in Accra.
He said conflicts in the Sahel, floods, droughts, health emergencies and economic hardships continue to disrupt education across the region, with girls, children with disabilities, rural communities and poor households bearing the greatest burden.
“Urgency matters, but urgency without evidence wastes scarce resources and can fail the very children we mean to serve,” Dr Apaak said.
He urged governments and development partners to use research to determine what works, for whom, at what cost and under what conditions, particularly when designing interventions for children affected by emergencies.
According to him, Ghana’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of building resilient education systems capable of keeping children learning during crises.
He noted that although radio, television and online platforms were used to support learning when schools were closed, children without access to devices, electricity, internet connectivity or adult support were left further behind.
Dr Apaak also stressed the need to prioritise foundational learning, saying returning children to classrooms without ensuring that they can read and perform basic mathematics does not adequately address the learning crisis.
He identified four key investment priorities for West Africa: building resilience before crises occur, scaling proven interventions, putting equity at the centre of education responses, and strengthening domestic financing and regional cooperation.
He said accelerated education programmes, community-based learning, low-technology remote learning and foundational learning interventions that have demonstrated results should receive sustained and predictable funding rather than being limited to short-term pilot projects.
“Gender equality and social inclusion are not add-ons. If our programmes do not reach girls, children with disabilities and the displaced, they are failing, whatever the averages say,” he said.
The Deputy Minister further called on researchers to make their findings accessible and useful to policymakers, while urging governments to allow evidence to influence education policies and budgets.
The two-day conference brings together researchers, policymakers, education practitioners and development partners from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and other parts of West Africa to examine how education interventions can be scaled to reach children affected by emergencies.
Dr Apaak said the ultimate measure of success should be whether children pushed furthest from the classroom by crises are able to return to learning and achieve meaningful learning gains.
Source: Bolgafmonline.com| 102.7 MHz| Bolgatanga
