Poster

[1Z121] Learning Poverty and Double-Shift Schooling in Primary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

*Takumi KOIKE¹ (1. Kobe University, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS))

Keywords:Double-shift Schooling, Learning Poverty, Sub-sahara Africa, Primary Education

The international focus of educational development has shifted from quantitative expansion in education, such as increasing school enrollment rates, to qualitative improvement in education, such as enhancing students' learning achievements. The "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)" from 2000 to 2015 emphasized "universal primary education," leading many developing countries to prioritize expanding primary education enrollment. However, in developing countries with insufficient educational funding and resources, there is no adequate economic foundation to meet the rapidly increasing demand for education. As a result, many of these countries adopted "double-shift schooling," where classes are held in the morning and afternoon shifts as an educational policy. Additionally, the issue of "learning poverty" has been highlighted as a new challenge in recent educational development. This term refers to the proportion of 10-year-old children who have not acquired basic reading proficiency. Learning poverty is particularly severe in Sub-Saharan Africa, where about 90% of children are facing this crisis. It is generally pointed out that there is a trade-off between quantitative expansion and qualitative improvement in education in developing countries. In this sense, the concern is that the rapid quantitative expansion of education due to the introduction of double-shift schooling might lead to a low quality of education. This study aims to quantitatively explore the influence of double-shift schooling on learning poverty using the PASEC 2019 and Learning Poverty Global Database. The findings of this study offer policy recommendations on educational shift systems that can assist governments in developing countries in optimizing the allocation of their limited educational resources to mitigate learning poverty.