Funmi Ogundare
Edugist, an African education newsroom and innovation lab, has launched a dedicated journalism beat on foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) to strengthen accountability and address the growing crisis of children leaving primary school without basic reading and counting skills.
The Foundational Literacy and Numeracy beat, described by the organisation as the first journalism beat globally dedicated exclusively to the issue, will investigate education policies, government spending, research outcomes and classroom realities affecting children’s acquisition of foundational learning skills.
The initiative comes amid concerns that nearly nine in 10 children in low-income African countries cannot read with understanding by age 10, despite attending school, while an estimated 617 million children globally remain below minimum proficiency levels in reading and Mathematics.
In Nigeria, the majority of children reportedly complete primary education without acquiring the foundational skills required for further learning.
Founder of Edugist, Elvis Boniface, said the initiative was designed to bridge the gap between education research, policymaking and classroom practice, whil...