The world is facing an urgent learning crisis. The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (the Education Commission) predicts that, by 2030, 825 million children in low- and middle-income countries—half of today’s youth generation—will reach adulthood without the skills they need to thrive in work and life. More worrisome still, it will take approximately 100 years for the most marginalized youth to achieve the learning levels that the wealthiest enjoy today. Confronted with these pervasive and persistent inequalities, we must make room for bold new approaches that have the potential to deliver quality learning for all children and youth, not in a century, but today. In Can We Leapfrog? The Potential of Education Innovations to Rapidly Accelerate Progress, researchers from the Center for Universal Education chart a new path forward in global education by examining the possibility of using innovations to leapfrog—rapidly accelerating educational progress to ensure that all young people develop the skills they need to thrive in a fast-changing world.
