The global learning crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing an additional 70 million people into poverty and causing a billion children to lose a year of school. Even three years later, the learning losses have not been fully recovered. It is believed that if a child cannot read with comprehension by age 10, their future prospects in education and career are significantly compromised.
Analyses reveal significant setbacks, with international reading scores declining from 2016 to 2021 by more than a year's worth of schooling. These losses could potentially result in a 0.68 percentage point drop in global GDP growth. The effects of school closures extend beyond just learning loss. This generation of children could potentially lose a combined total of US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings, equivalent to 17% of today's global GDP – a sharp increase from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss.
However, it is not all doom and gloom. Countries can effectively address the learning and skills crisis with adequate support from institutions like the World Bank. Investment in human capital – considered the world's most precious resource – is crucial for eradicating poverty and creating a sustainable planet.
The World Bank is at the forefront of this effort, supporting resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure universal access to learning. They achieve this through knowledge generation and dissemination, financing evidence-based interventions and policy actions, and bridging the gap between research and practice. As the largest external financier of education worldwide, the World Bank currently has an active portfolio of about $26 billion across 94 countries.
The solution to improving foundational learning outcomes lies in political commitment, skilled teachers, effective pedagogy and classroom environments, as well as robust implementation capacity. With these elements in place, countries can deliver much stronger foundational learning outcomes - encompassing literacy, numeracy, socioemotional skills - regardless of income level.