The UK Government helps many of the most marginalised children in Africa and Asia gain critical foundational skills (literacy and numeracy) needed to progress in school. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 9 in 10 children in low income countries could not read a simple story by the age of ten. Now, with two-thirds of the academic year lost on average worldwide due to school closures, an additional 72 million children are expected to fall behind and fail to read by the time they leave primary school, with girls disproportionately impacted.<\/p>
In response to school closures in Pakistan, UK technical support to the Government has provided teachers with scripted lessons and students with learning materials, benefitting more than 8.5 million students, including 4.3 million girls. In Ethiopia, the UK has helped the Government with school reopening and post COVID 19 recovery plans, working to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of over 1 million primary school aged children in the most marginalised parts of the country. Through our presidency of the G7 this year, the UK is asking G7 members and global education partners to raise their ambitions for girls education and endorse two new global targets - to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more girls reading by age 10 in low and lower middle income countries by 2026.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4358", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Wendy Morton"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Aldridge-Brownhills"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Wendy Morton"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2021-04-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2021-04-29T11:46:13.67Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "208"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2021-04-26", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Africa and Asia: Literacy"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help increase literacy rates in (a) Africa and (b) Asia.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4841", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Imran Ahmad Khan"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Wakefield"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Imran Ahmad Khan"} ], "uin" : "187356"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1000224", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Cabinet Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1000224/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
FOXHOUND is a Cabinet Office-led, cross-government IT programme to develop and deploy a new secure capability for managing sensitive information, including that which is classified up to and at SECRET. The aim is to bear down on the growing information and cyber risk, whilst improving scope for collaboration across the National Security community. The single platform this capability offers will enable some security related savings to be made and an outline Programme timetable and costs are published in Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) annual reports on Major Projects (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721978/IPA_Annual_Report_2018__2_.pdf<\/a> and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infrastructure-and-projects-authority-annual-report-2018<\/a>)<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4441", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Oliver Dowden"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hertsmere"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Oliver Dowden"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-11-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-11-12T09:57:43.8Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "53"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Cabinet Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Cabinet Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-11-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Government Departments: ICT"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) timetable, (b) cost and (c) estimated savings are for the Foxhound IT programme.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4673", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Jo Platt"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Leigh"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Jo Platt"} ], "uin" : "187356"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }