WASHINGTON, DC – As the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic begins, classrooms remain fully or partially closed to no less than 647 million students worldwide. And even where they were reopened, many students still lag behind.
It is well established that unfortunately, children learned less during the pandemic. According to World Bank estimates, pandemic-related school closures may increase ‘learning poverty’ (the proportion of 10-year-olds who cannot read a basic text) in low- and middle-income countries to around 70 %. This loss of learning can cost today’s generation of schoolchildren $ 17 trillion in lifetime earnings.
With the spread of the omicron variant, more governments could be tempted to close schools. But without the virtual infrastructure necessary to sustain teaching, such a move will amplify educational losses and deny children the many other benefits derived from daily school attendance, such as the ability to connect with their peers and develop social skills for learning. personal growth. Interactions with teachers and peers are essential to develop the skills necessary for cooperative work. Being part of a class promotes a sense of belonging and helps build self-esteem and empathy.
During the pandemic, marginalized children had the worst of it. When classrooms around the world reopened this year, it became clear that they had lagged even further behind their peers. Before the pandemic, educational gender parity was on the rise; But school closures put some 10 million more girls at risk of child marriage, which in practice is a guarantee that they will not continue studying.
If this setback is not reversed, educational poverty and the consequent loss of human capital will cause decades of economic and social backwardness. Children must be given a chance to regain the education they have lost. They need access to well-designed reading materials, digital learning opportunities, and transformed education systems to help them meet future challenges.
In this process, the presence of trained teachers and an effective use of technology are essential.
Many countries implemented huge stimulus packages in response to the health crisis. But as of June 2021, less than 3% of those funds went to the education and vocational training sector. And most of it was used in advanced economies.
For many low-income countries, burdensome debt service prevents funding for essential social expenditures, including education. The resulting lack of investment in education and vocational training may deepen learning disparities that already existed before the pandemic. And although a more efficient use of resources is necessary to reduce the educational gap, ultimately the problem is that there are insufficient resources. For the world’s poorest countries, in particular, accelerating debt relief within the common G20 framework would create fiscal space to further support human capital formation.
Investing in education should include financing for educational technologies, paying attention to what has worked well in different contexts around the world. Uruguay is one of the successful examples. In the last ten years, Uruguayan authorities invested in infrastructure, digital content, and teacher training, so that when classrooms were closed, the country was better prepared to switch to virtual teaching. Another example is the Indian state of Gujarat, which before the pandemic bet on big data analytics and artificial intelligence and established cutting-edge digital support centers for schools.
When the schools were closed, Gujarat was able to organize a rapid response by digitally distributing educational materials and customizing remote education according to the learning level of each student. And in Kenya, specially designed and inclusive digital textbooks are available to all children (including those with disabilities).
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank are cooperating to ensure that all education systems use technology effectively to eliminate disparities and repair learning losses. Incorporating the use of technology into an overall strategy to end educational poverty can help improve fundamental skills, increase teaching time, and optimize the use of resources. This is particularly important in low-income countries, where technology can accelerate the provision of necessary support to teachers.
Digital access can be a great equalizer. A smart investment of resources is needed, which takes into account the particularities of each country in terms of electrical infrastructure, Internet connectivity, provision of digital devices for the most disadvantaged students, and the ability to implement and manage data. Without a studied process to increase the use of technology, good intentions and well-designed policies will not suffice to bring about the recovery and acceleration of learning that developing countries need.
Access to quality education was already uneven before the pandemic, and even more so now. But with investments in learning recovery and smart use of technology, the experience of the pandemic can serve as a catalyst for universal improvement in education.
* Henrietta H. Fore is Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund and David Malpass is President of the World Bank.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx