Giving Compass' Take:

• Meera's experience shows us an education system that embodies lessons about the dire need to address the global learning crisis. 

• How can both philanthropists and development agencies partner with local communities to invest time, money, and resources into education and sustained learning initiatives? 

• Read about Bill Gates' call for better global education plans. 

Meera grew up in a small village in Rajasthan, a state in the northwestern part of India. For several years, Meera, like most children her age, had progressed alongside her friends from one grade to the next. Her parents and teachers were unaware that there was a serious problem looming over her education.

Rajasthan had no formal examinations for children in primary school and while her parents had a sense that Meera might not have been learning at the pace that was expected, there was no mechanism to formally identify and address the issue.

Partway through the school year, Meera’s school was selected to be part of Pratham’s Read India program, an innovative new program designed to build foundational skills like reading and arithmetic. Mohanlal, the instructor who was assigned to begin the learning improvement intervention in Meera’s school, began with a quick assessment.

What he discovered was that Meera, who had been in school for five years, couldn’t even read a sentence. Sadly, this story is all too familiar. It is now acknowledged that millions of children around the globe are in a similar situation. The fact that Meera couldn’t read was a surprise and a shock to her parents and teachers. Everyone assumed that since Meera was going to school, she must be learning — especially the basics.

It is well known that in countries like India the learning curve for millions of children is not improving. If children don’t acquire foundational skills early in primary school, it is unlikely that they can pick them up later. India’s education system, like many others, suffers from the “negative consequences of over ambitious curriculum” and, according to Poor Economics, teachers typically teach to the top of the class, leaving many students behind with no way to catch up.

Read the full article about the global learning crisis by Rukmini Banerji at Global Citizen