photo courtesy World Bank
A new program aims to expand equitable access and enhance learning outcomes in basic education across Eastern and Southern Africa, benefiting over 70 million children. The Advancing Innovative Methods to Promote Learning (AIM4Learning) Program is a $1.54 billion regional program funded by the International Development Association* (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
The press release by the World Bank on February 20th, 2025 the program is designed to address the learning crisis in Eastern and Southern Africa, and will use the latest innovations technologies to enhance education quality while supporting the rapid expansion of school enrollment.
AIM4learning will help countries in the region reduce school dropout rates, increase completion rates, and optimize the funding of basic education.
Over the past 20 years, countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have made significant progress in basic education. Increased government spending has driven rapid expansions in school enrollment, including for girls. However, despite improvements, the region is facing a growing learning crisis; education outcomes remain low, with the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent shocks further dragging down learning results. Today, only 11 percent of children in the countries to be addressed by AIM4Learning can read and understand a simple text by age 10, and 14 million basic school-age children are out of school. The program aims to halve this population, to 7 million by 2034.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s fastest-growing child population, making foundational learning for all more critical than ever. AIM4Learning is an ambitious regional program dedicated to ensuring quality education for every African child. By investing in education, we invest not just in individual futures, but in the prosperity, stability, and dignity of the entire continent,” said Victoria Kwakwa, Vice President for the World Bank’s Eastern and Southern Africa Region.
The AIM4Learning program will be implemented in phases over 10 years. The first phase will include participation from Comoros and Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, the program will be executed through the Ethiopia Education Transformation Operation for Learning (ETOL), which aims to increase equitable access and improve learning outcomes in pre-primary and primary education. This initiative is expected to benefit nearly 20 million students across the country.
In Comoros, the program will support close to 130,000 students in public pre-primary and primary schools, as well as nearly 400,000 teachers in the two countries.
Both projects are co-financed by the Global Partnership for Education. Additional countries will join the AIM4Learning program in subsequent phases.
“Across the world, technology is increasingly seen as an accelerator for learning, particularly for hard-to-reach and vulnerable children,” said Laura Frigenti, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education. “But deploying technology and resources to tackle the grave education crisis and prepare children for the jobs of the future is no easy task. Partnerships are key to offer countries context-relevant technology support that can help them transform their education systems and make them fit for the 21st century.”
AIM4Learning is built on four pillars: transforming learning spaces, developing an effective teacher workforce, strengthening education systems and financing, and encouraging cross-country collaboration.
The program will focus on scaling up cost-effective innovations, including:
- Leveraging digital technology to support both in-school and out-of-school children,
- Reorganizing the way schools deliver learning,
- Improving teacher management and accountability,
- Enhancing curricula and assessment systems, and
- Strengthening governance through decentralization and effective school management.
Each participating country will select from a tailored set of options under each pillar, aligning with its specific context and most pressing challenges.
