Deputy Minister for Education Dr Clement Apaak has called on governments and development partners in West Africa to invest in proven education interventions to prevent children affected by conflicts, climate shocks and other emergencies from losing access to learning.
He said responses to education emergencies should not be driven by urgency alone but by evidence showing which interventions work, who they work for and the conditions under which they can be successfully implemented.
“Urgency matters, but urgency without evidence wastes scarce resources and can fail the very children we mean to serve,” Dr Apaak said.
He made the call in a keynote address delivered on behalf of Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu at the 2nd High-Level Conference on Scaling Education Initiatives in Emergencies, ACCELERATE+, in Accra.
Dr Apaak said conflicts in the Sahel, floods, droughts, health emergencies and economic hardship continued to disrupt education across West Africa, with girls, children with disabilities, rural communities and poor households among those most affected.
He urged governments and development partners to use research to establish what works, for whom, at what cost and under what conditions before committing scarce resources to education interventions during emergencies.
Lessons from COVID-19
Dr Apaak said Ghana’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of building education systems capable of keeping children learning when normal schooling is disrupted.
During school closures, he said, radio, television and online platforms were used to continue teaching and learning.
However, children without access to devices, electricity, internet connectivity or adult support were at greater risk of being left behind.
Dr Apaak said emergency education interventions must therefore take account of existing inequalities and ensure vulnerable children are not excluded.
“Gender equality and social inclusion are not add-ons. If our programmes do not reach girls, children with disabilities and the displaced, they are failing, whatever the averages say,” he said.
Prioritise foundational learning
The Deputy Minister also called for greater attention to foundational learning, arguing that getting children back into classrooms after an emergency was not sufficient if they were unable to read or perform basic mathematics.
He identified four priority areas for education investment in West Africa: building resilience before emergencies occur, scaling interventions that have demonstrated results, placing equity at the centre of education responses, and strengthening domestic financing and regional cooperation.
Dr Apaak said accelerated education programmes, community-based learning, low-technology remote learning and proven foundational learning interventions should receive sustained and predictable funding rather than remain short-term pilot projects.
He also urged researchers to make their findings accessible to policymakers and called on governments to allow evidence to inform education policies, programmes and budgets.
The two-day conference brings together researchers, policymakers, education practitioners and development partners from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and other parts of West Africa to discuss how effective education interventions can be expanded to reach children affected by emergencies.
Dr Apaak said the ultimate measure of the region’s response should be whether children pushed furthest away from education by crises are able to return to learning and make meaningful progress.
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