‘Pandemic disrupted decades of progress in education’

Physically, the corona pandemic posed no great danger to most children, yet the virus has disrupted the lives of many millions of students. Often for good: many poorer children will never catch up with the learning delay they have incurred due to the long school closures. This increases the chance that they are doomed to a marginal existence for the rest of their lives.

The damage manifests itself on many fronts. “It is estimated that some ten million girls are leaving school permanently due to the pandemic and as a result marry early and have children quickly,” says Jessica Bergmann by phone from Florence. She is a researcher at Innocenti, a research institute of Unicef, and is one of the authors of a recent report from the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO about the crisis that the pandemic has wreaked havoc on education worldwide. Bergmann has another bleak prognosis: “About nine million children are at risk of being out of school by the end of 2022, according to a recent estimate, but doing child labor.”

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In total, some 1.6 billion school-age children were deprived of education for a short or longer period of time due to the lockdowns. Most schools are now open again. Even in Uganda, one of the record holders, where students were finally allowed to go back to school in January after almost two years.

Researchers such as Bergmann are now carefully trying to draw up the global balance sheet, which is not cheering. Certainly not for primary schools where elementary skills such as math and language showed serious erosion. Even in a relatively developed city like Sao Paulo, Brazil, homeschooling children only learned 28 percent of what they would normally have done. The number of school dropouts tripled.

Bergmann also points out that in Bangladesh one in ten girls between the ages of 12 and 15 did not return to school and in Brazil the figures are about the same. In South Africa, students have fallen a year behind the level where they should have been. Government forecasts in Uganda show that one in three pre-corona students will not return to school.

In their report on the state of education worldwide after the pandemic, economists from the World Bank, Unicef ​​and Unesco estimated future economic losses for the international community as a whole at around $1,700 billion. More education leads to more prosperity, but the reverse is also true.

How far has education fallen due to the pandemic?

“Decades of progress in education have been turned into regression due to the pandemic. It is true that even before the pandemic, several hundred million school-age children were out of school. However, the pandemic has also led to major learning delays among school-age children. It is also worrying that many children are still learning less than before after the reopening of schools. Many children have lost the reading and math skills they had acquired in the past two years. We are still a long way from the global education crisis.”

In your report you notice an increase in inequality?

“The facts speak for themselves. Two-thirds of households worldwide have suffered from reduced income due to the pandemic. At least 100 million children have fallen below the poverty line as a result. Even in the best-case scenario, it will take seven to eight years to get those kids out of there again. It is also generally the case that richer people and richer countries recover faster than poor ones.”

Is the damage to education also greatest in the poorer countries?

“In poorer countries, the resources to homeschool students often lacked. UNICEF concluded after research that 460 million children did not have that option. Even in high-income countries like the United States and the Netherlands, it was often more difficult for the poor to follow home education. In sub-Saharan Africa, 53 percent do not even have access to electricity at home.”

Which students were most affected?

“We don’t have all the data we would like yet. But you see mixed effects. In a country like Mexico, girls suffered more than boys, but in Pakistan it was mostly boys who suffered from the school lockdowns. A group that has also suffered especially in many countries are the youngest children who have not yet received primary education. Governments did not give any priority to this. Another problem was that distance education works much less well for children with learning disabilities. The school closures were also important for another reason: some 370 million children missed their daily meal at school as a result.”

Are there countries that did better than others in the corona crisis?

“One country that clearly stands out is Sierra Leone, which had already closed schools during the Ebola epidemic. Policymakers there were better prepared than many other countries. They ensured that education could continue through radio broadcasts when the schools were closed. Students could call teachers free of charge if they had a question.”

What should governments do now to repair the damage?

“Governments must quickly plan for investment in education. So far, we’ve seen that only three percent of total post-pandemic investment goes into education. But there really needs to be more money for education. Governments should also take this opportunity to reform education so that every child has a fair chance at an education.

First and foremost, governments must ensure that schools reopen. Furthermore, an investigation should be carried out into the situation. Where are we standing right now? How many pupils do not return to school and why not? We must try to understand that. In addition, make sure that the teachers are well prepared. And above all, make sure that there are school meals again for children who need it.”

Is there still hope that we can limit that looming $1,700 billion damage?

“Absolute! But if we don’t give sufficient priority to investment in education, as we do now, it won’t work. We should not think that we can just continue as before the pandemic. We have really entered a different landscape.”

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