Remarks by Ahmed M. Saeed, ADB Vice-President, Operations 2, at the Global Education Forum, 25 October 2021
Thank you. The Asian Development Bank is committed to working with you to ramp up support for learning continuity and in order to turn crisis into opportunity.
COVID-19 is a disease that discriminates – against the poorest countries and populations we know, but especially against the most vulnerable amongst us – children in developing countries. It is therefore no surprise that it has greatly exacerbated an already severe learning crisis.
There are many urgent demands for funding in the world today. Sometimes, it is not clear that lack of capital is actually the key binding constraint to progress. But in education we know that it is. And so, we must urgently collaborate to mobilize a step function change in funding for education.
ADB is committed to doing its part. Please allow me to reiterate the commitment made by ADB President Masa at the Global Education Summit organized by the Global Partnership for Education in July 2021: To meet the immense needs across the Asia and Pacific region, ADB aims to double the percentage of our support to education to up to 10% of our total annual commitments by 2024.
As others have noted, we know how to spend these funds well. New-generation adaptive learning technology shows huge potential to narrow learning gaps, especially for girls, and gives us new pathways to improved teacher quality. ADB’s member countries recognize the potential for these tools. We are seeing a surge in demand for digital learning across Asia, including Last Mile Schools in the Philippines, and digital learning and teacher quality work in Sri Lanka and India.
I want to note before closing that if we are to leverage transformational technologies, then we must aspire to be transformational, and should not pass up the opportunity to completely rethink and restructure the traditional brick and mortar model.
Thank you again for the opportunity to partner with you. The Asian Development Bank will continue to work closely with partners so we can make progress together on reforms in the four themes discussed today.