Reading and comprehending are crucial to learning and academic progress in young children. The United Nations has marked the ability to read and understand simple texts at ten years of age as a clear indication of children learning in a working school system. Therefore, it is expected that every ten-year-old should have achieved rudimentary reading and comprehension abilities by this age, thus laying a solid foundation for any further advancements in communication and academic achievement.

According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), learning poverty is evident in a child's inability to read and understand simple text by age ten. This definition merged the share of primary-aged pupils out of school, referred to as schooling-deprived (SD), and the share of pupils short of the minimum reading proficiency, referred to as learning-deprived (LD).

Reports from the World Bank indicate that low—and middle-income countries rank highest in regional learning poverty rates, with 53% of pupils in this region experiencing learning poverty. Despite the United Nations' efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) by 2030, this figure could only decrease slightly to 43%.

Within the low-middle income countries, Sub-Saharan Africa takes the lead, with  87 % of children attending school but not learning. There are 260 million out-of-school children globally, with Nigeria contributing the most, presenting one in every five out-of-school children.

Learning Poverty: The Nigerian Case

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 63% of the Nigerian population (133 million) suffered multidimensional poverty in 2022. Multidimensional poverty considers factors such as deprivation of education, health, and better living standards in its term designation. For education, it includes school attendance and years of schooling. Regarding out-of-school children, Nigeria ranks the highest, with over 10.5 million children not attending school despite implementing free and compulsory primary education.

A survey targeted at analysing the learning crisis in Nigeria, with a sample size of 2,450 public primary schools, focusing on primary five and six students in the six geopolitical zones, showed a 92% average learning deprivation rate. The survey revealed that 62% of these learning-deprived students are from low-income households. Furthermore, two in every five pupils in primary five and one-third of primary six pupils were above the recommended age of ten, showing students’ late enrollment into school. The late enrollment can be attributed to financial constraints, which can negatively affect learning outcomes.

The survey revealed that children living in urban areas have higher reading and comprehension abilities (24%) than their peers in rural areas (19%). Furthermore, reading proficiency among pupils aged ten in the six geopolitical zones showed that the South West region exhibited higher reading proficiency (2.3%) while the North West lagged (0.4%).

Learning poverty is significant in the northern region, driven primarily by low school attendance. This apathy is heavily triggered by socio-cultural norms and practices discouraging children from receiving formal education. In addition to socio-cultural norms, economic barriers and increasing insecurity challenges resulting from the activities of Boko Haram in the North East and banditry in the Northern region are contributing factors. The increasing level of insecurity in northern Nigeria has displaced hundreds, contributed to the closure of over 802 schools, destroyed 497 classrooms, and positioned over 2.8 million children in need of education emergencies in the northern region from 2015 to date.

Aside from financial constraints, which is a demand factor, other supply factors, such as

• the unavailability of learning materials (especially in public schools),
• substandard teacher training,  
• a lack of quality investment in education in Nigeria,
• a deficient system of accountability for student learning outcomes and
• a poor learning environment, among others, significantly contributes to learning poverty in Nigeria.

While the above-listed contributing factors remain, a high correlation between learning poverty and socio-economic status can be seen in Nigeria, as evident in Figure 1.

Figure 1 revealed that children from higher-income households tend to comprehend better than children from low-income families. This disparity exists because children from higher-income households have better access to nutritional food, quality education, learning technologies and other learning materials compared to children from lower-income households.  Better access to those mentioned above can improve learning abilities. Figure 2 shows that pupils' comprehension improves with class-grade progression, particularly in education at the primary level.

The Policies

Through diverse interventions, the Nigerian government has tried to address learning poverty concerns related to socio-economic status. Policies such as the Nigerian Home-Grown School Feeding Strategic Plan (NHGSFSP), the National Policy on Inclusive Education in Nigeria (NPIEN), and the National Digital Learning Policy (NDL) stand out among others.

The objectives of the above interventions vary. The school feeding program aims to eradicate malnutrition among school-age children by providing nutritious meals to improve learning outcomes. Meanwhile, the inclusive education intervention policy seeks to provide quality education for children with special needs, reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, and address issues concerning children with different learning abilities (slow learners) and children excluded from learning due to insecurity. The digital learning policy focuses on bridging the digital divide gap and creating an innovative digital learning ecosystem by providing AI-powered and algorithmic devices.

As evident in Osun State, the school feeding program has proven effective in addressing learning poverty and reducing out-of-school children in Nigeria. The policy impact evaluation data showed a 78.4% increase in enrollment, 44.8% retention, 58% regularity, and 55.2% improvement in pupils' academic performance in Osun State. The impact on the other 29 states could not be ascertained due to the unavailability of evaluation data.

Policy Challenges

As positive as the policy impact may seem, a considerable gap exists between policy planning and implementation in Nigeria. Generally, factors such as policy control, change in government, economic instability, and other supply-side factors remain. However, the school feeding programme had its share of the implementation gap, leading to its discontinuation.

According to the Nigerian Home Grown School Feeding Strategic Plan 2016-2020 assessment, gaps such as

• Lack of infrastructural support (running water)
• Improper sensitisation of stakeholders and advocacy measures leading to less community involvement
• Fund disbursement breach by the Universal Basic Education Commission
• Poor monitoring and evaluation by relevant authorities
• Inadequate legal and policy frameworks by both federal and state governments contributed to halting the programme.

Pathways to Progress

Going by the progress achieved by the school feeding program in Osun State and the unfortunate discontinuation of the programme, the government needs to consider the following pathways to progress in subsequent policies:

• Consider Independent and Transparent Disbursement Mechanisms: This can be achieved through collaboration between the federal government and commercial financial institutions to control the misappropriation of funds and facilitate efficient disbursement.
• Embrace Digital Means of Monitoring and Evaluation of the Program: Less human involvement in the monitoring and evaluation process will curb data manipulation. However, embracing digital means through real-time platforms (KoboToolbox, Sopact Impact Cloud)  and geospatial data will boost the implementation process.
• Comprehensive Stakeholder Engagements: Proper stakeholder engagement, such as conducting town hall meetings, focus group discussions, and practical training sessions, will help communicate the plan better and ensure commitment among stakeholders in the implementation process.

The above listed are evident in the USAID SCHOOL FEEDING RESPONSE ACTIVITY report, which validates the workability of these initiatives.

Conclusion

Reading and comprehension are essential for further studies; thus, every child by age ten should be able to read and understand simple text. The 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria and the 92 percent average learning deprivation rate are clear indications of a non-working school system in Nigeria. Despite efforts by the Nigerian government to tackle the socio-economic causes of learning poverty in Nigeria through diverse interventions, including the NHGSFSP, NPIE, and the NDL Policy, challenges have surfaced, resulting from gaps in the implementation process.

Moving forward, the Nigerian government can bridge these gaps by considering independent and transparent disbursement mechanisms, embracing digital means of monitoring and evaluation, and establishing comprehensive stakeholder engagements to effectively tackle learning poverty and significantly reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

References

World Bank. “ENDING LEARNING POVERTY: What will it take?” https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/395151571251399043/pdf/Ending-Learning-Poverty-What-Will-It-Take.pdf

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “What makes one poor – understanding the Multidimensional Poverty Index” https://www.undp.org/india/stories/what-makes-one-poor-understanding-multidimensional-poverty-index

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). “ Education” https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/education

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” https://www.unicef.org/media/122921/file/StateofLearningPoverty2022.pdf

Federal Ministry of Education. “Compendium of Education Sector Laws in Nigeria”. https://education.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Compendium-Of-Education-Sector-Laws-In-Nigeria-Third-Edition-Vol.1.pdf

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group. “ Mapping the Learning Crisis: Learning Deprivation as an Early Warning Indicator Among In-School Children in Nigeria”. https://nesgroup.org/download_resource_documents/Learning%20Poverty%20Brief_FINAL%20(1)_1694426886.pdf

Federal Ministry of Education. “Nigeria National Education Data Survey (NEDS) 2015” https://ierc-publicfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/public/resources/2015-NEDS-National-011716.pdf

National Bureau of Statistics. “ Nigeria launches its most extensive national measure of multidimensional poverty”. https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/news/78#:~:text=Highlights%20of%20the%202022%20Multidimensional,quarter%20of%20all%20possible%20deprivations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations  “Nigeria Home Grown School Feeding Strategic Plan”. https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/nig169078.pdf

Federal Ministry of Education. “ National Digital Learning Policy” https://education.gov.ng/draft-national-digital-learning-policy/#1

Federal Ministry of Education. “ National Policy on Inclusive Education in Nigeria “ https://education.gov.ng/fme-resources/page/2/

Adekunle and  Christiana. “The Effects of School Feeding Programme on Enrolment and Performance of Public Elementary School Pupils in Osun State, Nigeria” https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1158290.pdf