Over 50% of Pupils Can’t Read – UNICEF

The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has painted a gloomy picture of the country’s basic educational sub-sector.

According to the organization, just about 40% of basic school pupils are able to read and understand as well as solve basic numeracy problems.

Speaking to Starr News’ Parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, Social Policy Specialist with UNICEF Charles Dzradosi attributed the problem to the lack of needed investments in basic education.

According to him, government’s Free SHS policy will fail if the foundation continues to deteriorate.

“About 123,000 kids are right now known to be out of School,” Mr Dzradosi said.

“They  are not in School at all and those that are in School a huge chunk of them are not learning well enough either through poor teaching, learning materials because of that they are missing out on the actual outcomes for why they are in School. So if we do not address the fundamental or that basic, children will grow up into basic and Senior High School without even knowing how to do proper calculation in Maths or write English.

“The recent education assessment report for basic school indicated only about 40% of pupils are able to do their Maths and English well. So if we have such statistics what kind of people are you pushing into free SHS,” Mr. Dzradosi lamented.

He further called on government to pay urgent attention to the quality at the basic education level.

Source: StarrFMonline