A review of The TED Talk by Amel Karboul, "The Global Learning Crisis -- and What to Do About It".

Amel Karboul explores how developing countries boost learning and GDP by investing in education, inspired by her own experience under president Bourguiba of Tunisia investing 20% of the national budget into education.

Firstly, it’s important to understand the key difference between education and learning. Her focus is on the the problem beyond children being out of school (260 million). It also includes the 330 million children who are in school but not learning. (Even though this was recorded in 2017 - guaranteed there’s kids in school who are not learning!) At the time of this talk she mentioned that By 2030, it's projected that half of the world's children and youth will either be out of school or not learning effectively. This highlights the massive scale and urgent need for action. Essentially, the call to action is not just access to education it’s also the quality of learning.

The primary concern lies in the accessibility and experience of youth education, while the secondary issue in underdeveloped nations is the continuous cycle of poverty, inequality, and instability among marginalised communities. To address these challenges effectively, the team analysed the impact of standardising and documenting national literacy and numeracy on economic growth across different countries. Vietnam surpassed numerous first world economies, including the USA.

So, that’s a start to identifying and supporting access to education but are students really learning? The team continued to dig into the key quality lever between a ‘good education system’ and a ‘good learning impact’. The findings of their studies is absolute GOLD. In essence they discovered the differentiation between teaching and tutoring numbers is critical to the quality of learning and longevity of students continuing to learn. Secondly, surrounding the teachers with the necessary support people and skills in order for that teaching to be successfully consumed. The better the support the better the outcomes.

The metaphor in the talk uses the Doctor: Support staff ratios. As in 1 Doctor to 10 supporters (including nurses, anesthetist, administrators, cleaners etc). An experience we can all relate too as the consequences of have a distracted Doctor are relatable and immediate.

Investigating a local Australian experience:

I recently spoke to Australian primary school teachers about the amount of children in their class, the support they have and the key to a child’s learning quality and longevity. The local stories reflect the critical issues experienced by under developed nations who are actively looking to reverse the poor education system. 1 teacher : 29 students : 4 special needs : 1 supporter and 0.2 teachers assistant. The teachers also do yard duty, after school care, and all the content tutoring, marking as well as administration. Is this the norm? It is in Australia’s lower socio-economic suburbs. The problem is amplified by the education systems poor supported teaching and tutoring structure which fails to allow learning time even for the most basic of practices critical to attendance, quality and school enjoyment - ensuring a child reads every day. While this may form homework, how many kids in our busy world and dual income homes are having ‘tutored learning’ time?

I have to ask the question: Given, the data demonstrates a correlation between youth learning quality and GDP growth and the Australian education system continues to strain teachers and limit support personal are we growing the next dumb nation? (We have also recently dropped in the UN human development index)

The key take aways from Amels talk are;

• Invest in early childhood education: The early years are critical for cognitive and social development.

• Focus on teacher quality and supporting roles: Well-trained and supported teachers are the backbone of any education system.

• Make time for learning, and learning relevant: Curriculum should be engaging, aligned with real-world needs, and promote critical thinking.

• Use technology effectively but not at the consequence of experiential learning: Digital tools can enhance learning, but they must be used thoughtfully and equitably.

• Create a culture of continuous improvement: Regularly assess progress, learn from successes and failures, and adapt strategies accordingly.

Karboul emphasizes that addressing the global learning crisis is not just a moral imperative, but also a strategic investment in a better future for all.

To bring this review back into the context of the Australian business world, I’ve seen a correlation in the (lack of) investment in quality learning and (diluted) team design across our ‘agile enterprises’.

• team roles are being discombobulated under the guise of ‘t-shape’ role description consequently the time to do value work is diluted

• Culture of continuous improvement is outsourced to consultants rather than embedding in growing people internally

• less time for learning and learning by experience (reading powerpoints digitally does not grow wisdom)

Is your organisation investing in quality learning, support time and experiences?