Education Minister-designate Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that school kids in rural areas are able to improve on their reading proficiency by the age of ten.

Dr. Adutwum, who was making a statement in Parliament as part of the International Day of Education celebration, said government would allocate more resources to curb what has been described as learning poverty – a situation where kids are unable to read and understand simple text by age 10.

“When we talk about the disparity we see in terms of education, the fact that Zoom is not available in the public schools, we must not lose sight of the fact that it is happening because of the digital divide that we find ourselves confronted with. It finds expression in education divide and for us to be able to solve the challenge of education divide, we have to go to the root of the problem.

The good news is that the Ministry of Communications is looking at rural connectivity and when you solve the issue of rural connectivity which allows families who have mobile phones to get connectivity and help their children do school work,” he said.

He called for a holistic approach to tackling learning poverty especially as the country is plagued by the pandemic.

“Education is a vehicle that promotes socio-economic development and we will fight learning poverty throughout the pandemic,” he stated.

Scope of problem

The World Bank’s recently introduced concept of learning poverty draws on data developed in collaboration with the UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics.

According to Dr. Adutwum, he is hopeful of attaining the approval of the legislature to fully implement a raft of new policies that detail how education should be conducted effectively amidst the pandemic.

Member of Parliament for Old Tafo constituency, Vincent Assafuah, also making a statement to commemorate the International Day of Education called for reform of the school’s curriculum to ensure that Ghanaian kids are able to compete anywhere in the world.