In David Shariatmadari’s review of William MacAskill’s book Doing righteous Better (Review,22 August), he quotes the author as saying that books effect not advance education in Africa. That is a paradox to say the least. There is plenty of data to indicate that books effect indeed advance student achievement. In fact, and a World Bank report in May 2015 emphasises the urgent need to get textbooks into the hands of every student in sub-Saharan Africa: “No other input is likely to be more cost-effective than making high-quality learning materials available to all students…”.
In addition,the World Bank undertook two large-scale studies (1987, 2002) involving over 89 education projects across Africa. The findings confirmed the cost-effectiveness and importance of books, and with the 2002 report indicating that in Africa,next to a righteous teacher, “a righteous textbook is the most effective medium of instruction”.
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Source: theguardian.com