Latin America loses a decade in education due to pandemic, warns World Bank

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Latin American and Caribbean region has lost more than a decade in education due to the covid-19 pandemic, warned the World Bank on Thursday, June 23, which urged to take measures “to save a generation”.

The region, which was already suffering from a learning crisis before the health emergency declared in 2020, suffered a “substantial worsening” of the situation, revealed a report published by the World Bank and Unicef, in collaboration with Unesco.

Due to the closure of schools to prevent the spread of the virus, an entire generation of students, some 170 million children, lost between one and almost two years of learning on average.

As a result, four out of five sixth graders are expected to fail to reach the minimum level of reading comprehension for their age, falling back to levels of more than ten years ago, something that could cost today’s students a 12% reduction in lifetime earnings.

“We are facing a real educational catastrophe that forces us to act urgently,” said Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, presenting the report at a forum of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.

Jaramillo warned that this “unprecedented education crisis” compromises the region’s future development and increases the risk of further deepening inequalities.

The report highlights that projected and actual learning losses are more pronounced for the early grades, the youngest students, and the population with the lowest socioeconomic status.

It further notes that the “learning poor” proportion increased from 52% in 2019 to 79% in 2022 due to the pandemic.

“While most schools in the region have reopened, we see that too many children have not been able to return to school full-time, and many of those who have returned are missing out. In both cases, they are not learning,” said Jean Gough, regional director of Unicef, quoted in a statement.

The pandemic has disproportionately hit Latin America and the Caribbean, with only 8% of the world’s population. On average, it recorded more deaths from covid-19 per capita than any other region in the world.

Distance education, implemented through online platforms, television and radio programs, social networks, and text messages via cell phones or printed materials, failed to ensure student participation and quality of learning, pointing to internet connectivity problems, access to technology, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

“Much more needs to be done to save this generation,” Emanuela di Gropello, one of the report’s authors, emphasized during the forum.

Among the recommendations, the report calls on countries to prioritize educational recovery in the public agenda, reintegrate those who dropped out and ensure their permanence, and support the welfare of students and teachers.

With information from AFP