Top 5 Most Viewed Education Blogs

As we take a short editorial break for the summer, we looked back at our most viewed blogs from the past year. It’s no surprise that many of our most viewed blogs addressed the global learning crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to help get children back in school and catch up on lost learning.  Others examined reforms to provide free primary education in DRC, school leadership and technology for teacher professional development.

1. Free Primary Schooling in the DRC? Where we are on the road to reform
3 August 2021

As late as 2019, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remained one of the few countries in the world where public primary education was not free. Fees were initially introduced in the 1980s to cover teacher salaries and school operating costs following a drastic reduction in public financing to education and repeated teacher strikes. Household financing was formalized gradually and paid for the education system in the 1990s, allowing it to function despite the breakdown of the Congolese state. Read more: English | French

2. Will a crisis force us to rethink school leadership? Insights from a South-South Exchange
13 April 2022

School leaders have taken the primary responsibility of ensuring schools navigate the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis. As of February 2022, around 27 percent of countries continue to have partially or fully closed schools, leaving close to 870 million students with disruptions to their education. While the pandemic has created a context for education systems to transform teaching and learning experiences, it is now the work of practitioners, government bodies, and researchers to orient and articulate the challenges to the broader education community and to create structures that will help school leaders build the traits and capacities to address the challenges of learning recovery and system resilience. Read more: English | Spanish

3. How to Enhance Teacher Professional Development Through Technology: Takeaways from Innovations Across the Globe
23 September 2021

Teachers, the single most important school-based determinant of student learning, are at the heart of the response to recover learning losses from COVID-19 pandemic-induced education crisis, as millions have been managing the changing nature of teaching and learning without effective teacher professional development (TPD). As education systems move towards remote solutions or decide that it is safe for schools to reopen, careful consideration must be given to the evolving demands placed on teachers, ensuring they are prepared and supported through effective TPD practices. Read more: English | French | Spanish

4. Menstrual health and hygiene: What role can schools play?
27 May 2022

Menstruation affects girls’ attendance and participation in education, globally. A study by UNESCO found that one in 10 girls in Sub-Saharan Africa missed school while on their period. Another study in Ethiopia found that 50 percent of girls miss between 1 and 4 days of school every month due to menstruation. In Kenya, it is estimated that girls lose an average of 4 days of school a month, which costs them 165 learning days over four years of high school. Read more: English

5. Learning recovery plan for countries in Europe and Central Asia
5 May 2022

The evidence is clear: countries in every corner of the world are experiencing a learning crisis. Yet even as this is happening, there are more children in school worldwide today that at any other time in history, pandemic-related disruptions notwithstanding. In 2010, the average adult had completed 7.6 years of schooling, more than double the 3.2 years completed by the average adult in 1950. This represents a substantial achievement, but is the additional schooling leading to actual learning and human capital accumulation? Read more: English