Basic Education

Description

Basic Education programs increase access to and improve the quality of education in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and help children and youth develop the skills needed to fulfill their potential and lead healthy and successful lives.

Use of Funds

Funds support programs that expand education service delivery; enhance teaching training and pedagogy; develop and distribute learning materials; support children’s acquisition of reading and other foundational learning skills; and provide youth with market-relevant skills to gain employment.

Justification

• Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the learning poverty rate was already at an estimated 57% in LMICs and 86% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Recent World Bank data suggests that global learning poverty in LMICs has surged to an estimated 70% and that South Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have been disproportionately impacted.
• According to UNESCO, nearly 153 million children missed more than half of their in-person schooling from 2020 through 2021, with more than 62 million of them having missed at least three-quarters of in-person schooling.
• In F.Y. 2020, U.S. development programs reached over 25.4 million learners in 57 countries, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. More than 30 USAID Missions supported distance learning programming over a variety of platforms including radio, television, and internet.