Education

What impact has the second wave of COVID-19 had on learning, especially in developing countries? What has been the impact on schooling in Sierra Leone? What opportunities are there to build more inclusive/resilient schooling? In decades to come, will the pandemic mark a major setback or a leap forward for education for the poorest? These are some of the questions we'll ask education experts, Jaime Saavedra, Director of Education at the World Bank, and David Moinina Sengeh, Education Minister, Sierra Leone. 

Launched in July 2020, Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) is an independent, cross-disciplinary body composed of leading education experts with a mandate to provide succinct, usable, and policy-focused recommendations to support decision-making on education. It is convened jointly by the UK FCDO and World Bank and is hosted by Building Evidence in Education (BE2).

#Coronavirus has had a devastating impact on #education. Around 80% of the world’s students are now out of school. Watch a discussion of some of the possible solutions with Jaime Saavedra, Global Director of Education, World Bank. Related Links: Covid-19 (Coronavirus): Live Interview and Panel Series COVID-19 landing page

For International Women's Day 2020, Rotary International and the Global Partnership for Education organize an event titled "Equality in Education" in Washington, DC.  GPE and Rotary will highlight their support and investment in girls’ education. GPE works across almost 70 developing partner countries and promotes gender equality in and through education. Rotary will present the basic education and literacy projects of women Rotary members, who have long been leaders and change agents in countless communities across the globe. 

The event will explore how to best support teachers and drive the change needed to tackle the global learning crisis and eliminate learning poverty. Panelists will focus on the global learning crisis and the efforts to tackle it by increasing the quality of investments in people, with a special focus on the role that education, particularly investments in teachers, can play in these efforts.

Young people are the drivers of Africa’s economy and future. With eleven million youth expected to enter Africa’s labor market every year for the next decade, now is the time for urgent action to build and nurture the region’s human capital.  The event focused on the future of Africa’s youth through the lens of inspirational youth leaders, policy makers, and civil society to collectively highlight the challenges, aspirations, and actions taken to help build the human capital of the next generation. It kicked off with a presentation of the “The Future is Me” video showcasing Africa’s youth and the future of the continent, followed by World Bank Vice President for Africa Hafez Ghanem’s announcement of the launch of the ambitious Human Capital Plan for Africa. His Majesty King Letsie III of Lesotho in the keynote address stressed why investments in human capital are essential for long term, sustainable economic growth, and urged everyone to ...

Teachers are the single most important driver of how much students learn. They have the responsibility to ensure that all children—each with their own challenges and potential—can learn effectively and have an enriching experience in school. The World Bank is working with countries to ensure that every classroom has a competent, empowered and motivated teacher. Join us for the unveiling of the first-ever open source classroom observation tool, and a discussion on the best ways to attract, prepare, engage, and support teachers to ensure learning for all.

This is a Facebook Live interview. Watch the replay! Tune in for a conversation about investing in school-based health interventions with Julia Gillard, Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education and former Prime Minister of Australia and Mark Dybul, Co-Director of the Center Global Health and Quality at Georgetown University Medical Center and former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 

The last 50 years have seen a great expansion of schooling in many developing countries, but education outcomes are lagging behind. As countries have committed to ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning (Sustainable Development Goal 4), the World Development Report 2018 (WDR 2018) – LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise – warns that there is a “learning crisis”. Please join the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability’s (GPSA) together with the World Bank’s Global Practice on Governance, Global Practice on Education, Basic Education Coalition and members of the GPSA’s Steering Committee for a Round Table discussion about the contribution that collaborative social accountability can make in the education sector in general and specifically towards addressing the learning crisis. The GPSA works with over 50 governments and more than 260 civil society and private sector partners towards solving governance challenges around the world. The GPSA portfolio has a set of projects where promising examples of civil society, governments and ...

As the region’s premier event during the World Bank-IMF Annual and Spring Meetings, the State of the Africa Region seminar provides an opportunity to reflect on the main trends shaping economic development on the continent. Attended by the region's leading thinkers and policy makers, the seminar will discuss key challenges and opportunities facing Africa amid a weak and volatile regional and global economic environment. This year’s seminar will have a special focus on meeting the skills challenge of 21st century Africa, exploring how Sub-Saharan African countries can enact system-wide change that will ensure greater efficiency of investments in skills-building and better outcomes for the region’s rapidly growing working-age population.

IFC hosted the Supporting Working Parents: Tackling Childcare event at the 2017 WBG-IMF Annual Meetings to draw attention to the growing need for childcare options for working parents. Businesses, economies, and workers and their children all benefit when companies offer childcare options to employees. Nena Stoiljkovic, Vice President of Blended Finance and Partnerships, IFC, highlighted the key findings from the recently released Tackling Childcare: The Business Case for Employer-Supported Childcare report, noting that no country, community, or economy can meet the challenges of the 21st century without addressing the childcare needs of employees. Panelists Ram Kumar Gupta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, India; Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women; Farhan A. Ifram, CEO, MAS Kreeda Al Safi; and Stephen Kramer, President, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, discussed industry best practices and explored new approaches to address childcare. Gillian Tett, U.S. Managing Editor, the Financial Times, moderated the dialogue. The speakers emphasized that if the world were to achieve UN ...

Policy makers, global education experts and civil society leader gathered today to shine the spotlight on education and the learning crisis as part of a conversation on concrete actions that countries can take to break the vicious cycle of low investment and poor results in education. The event aimed to mobilize everyone who has a stake in learning so that all children, regardless of where they are born, can realize the promise of education. Farah Mohamed, the CEO of the Malala Fund, who moderated the event and introduced the panel, and said that the good news was that there are many who are concerned about the learning crisis. The World Bank’s CEO Kristalina Georgieva called for a greater focus on education access and quality, because as she noted, schooling is not the same as learning—and millions of children spend several years in school without learning basic reading or math skills.  Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia’s Minister of Finance, ...

Salman "Sal" Khan will talk about how he founded the not-for-profit Khan Academy and how the organization is educating millions of people worldwide. Sal will also share his thoughts on what education reimagined could look like and how his dream of "providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere" could become a reality.

Investing in young children is one of the smartest investments a country can make to break the cycle of poverty, address inequality at the root, and boost productivity later in life. The benefits of early childhood development programs that integrate health, nutrition, education and social protection components are particularly strong for poor and disadvantaged children. Recent scientific and economic studies show irrefutably that early childhood experiences have a profound impact on brain development and on subsequent learning, health, and adult earnings. Smart investments in young children improve prospects for communities and can yield dramatic economic gains for countries. As we work to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals related to early childhood development, join World Bank Group President Jim Kim, UNICEF Executive Director Tony Lake, and a panel of experts LIVE at 4:30 PM ET on Thursday, April 14 to launch a global movement to ensure that children everywhere can thrive. Related Links: Early childhood development: A smart investment for life Measurement matters ...

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama brought her passion for girls’ education and a powerful message to a packed World Bank atrium just ahead of Spring Meetings: Support education for adolescent girls, because it’s one of the smartest investments any country can make. She was talking to the right audience — finance and development ministers entrusted with crucial spending decisions, development experts, and leaders from civil society, the private sector, and the media. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim praised Obama as a “tremendous champion for the rights of girls and women.” He announced that the Bank Group would invest $2.5 billion over five years in education projects directly benefiting adolescent girls. Obama welcomed the news as a “truly amazing. This isn’t just a breathtaking investment of resources, it’s also a powerful statement of mission.” “It’s an expression of our belief in the power of education to transform the lives and prospects of millions of girls worldwide — ...

The Open Learning Campus is an online destination for development learning that will build the leadership and technical capabilities of all development stakeholders—partners, practitioners, policy makers, staff and the public. With the OLC you can access development lessons captured in easy to understand and versatile formats - from bite-sized lessons to full-length courses, and MOOCs to peer learning conversations. With these tools you can access the information you need to better help you understand disaster risk management, health policy reform or any of your other learning needs as a development professional. The OLC will be launched at an event discussing the future of development learning. This conversation will be moderated by NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, and panelists include World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and edX CEO Anant Agarwal. The panel discussion will be followed by a series of lightning talks by three young innovators who have changed the landscape in this field.

Education is a critical step on the path toward new opportunities for both people and nations. But in a world where children are not getting the skills they need to live productive lives—250 million children cannot read or write, despite many having been to school—something clearly needs to change to fulfill this historic promise. Tune in to a high-stakes discussion between Finance Ministers, civil society representatives, private employers and development partners as they explore how all stakeholders can work together to make smarter, more results-oriented investments that deliver quality education for all children and youth. The payoff? Young people who are equipped with skills for jobs, and sustained economic gains that will contribute to peace, stability, and equitable growth

A child’s earliest years present the best window of opportunity to ensure good outcomes later in life. Early childhood development programs that include education, health, nutrition and social protection components have proven to be effective in several countries, but despite this growing evidence, more than 200 million children in developing countries under the age of 5 will not reach their development potential. The panel discussed how to use the evidence to influence policy makers and scale up investments moving forward to ensure that children not only survive their early years, but also thrive during this period. This event was convened by the World Bank Group and co-hosted by the Global Partnership for Education.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim will deliver the keynote address at this symposium co-hosted by the World Bank Group and the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) in Seoul, Korea

Join and the World Bank and SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) for the 2014 International Open Access Week Kickoff Event on Monday, October 20th in Washington, DC. The event will focus on this year’s theme of “Generation Open.”  It aims to provide a forum for students and early career researchers to have a lively conversation with an expert panel representing research funders, university administrators, and scholarly societies, exploring how the transition to Open Access affects scholars and researchers at different stages of their careers. The panel will also discuss the role that institutions central to a career in research can play in supporting—and rewarding—early career researchers in making their articles and underlying data openly accessible.