On 29 March, 2021, a Ministerial Education Forum with participation of a vast number of countries, specialized agencies and donor communities was convened to deliberate on a recent report that as a result of the devastating impact of COVID-19, over 100 million children would fall below the minimum proficiency level in reading and school closures. According to this report, the number of children lacking basic reading skills-although on a downward curve prior to the pandemic-is expected to fall further to 460 million in 2020 and as of today it could stand at 584 million. This is an increase of more than 20 percent that has wiped out gains made over the past two decades through education efforts. Pandemic resulted in disruption of schooling for an average of 25 weeks either in complete or partial closures. Learning losses were projected to be the most serious in Latin America, Caribbean region, and in Central and Southern Asia. Facing this insurmountable crisis, global community in the North and South tried various approaches by taking measures to keep schools at least partially open. Schools were fully open in just about half of the countries around the world (107 countries), mostly in Africa, Asia and Europe, serving 400 million pre-primary to secondary learners.  

Mehri Madarshahi

Former Senior Economist and Management Analyst of the United Nations New York, Visiting Professor of South China University of Technology

Schools remained closed in 30 countries impacting some 165 million students. In 70 countries, they were partially open in some regions, for some grades, or with reduced in-person attendance in others. These conditions affected about two-thirds of the global student population, almost 1 billion learners.

The report entitled "One Year into COVID: Prioritizing Education Recovery to Avoid a Generational Catastrophe" and it is a collective efforts and findings at the global level to advance education.

The report concluded that a return to the pre-pandemic level may take a decade. If, however, exceptional efforts are made to provide remedial classes and catch up strategies, the recovery could occur by 2024. Data from a joint survey conducted by UNESCO and UNICEF support these findings.  

The ministerial meeting-taking into account the findings of these reports-addressed three major concerns on the education policy agenda: reopening schools and supporting teachers, mitigating drop-out and learning losses, and accelerating the digital transformation.

To mitigate drop-out and learning losses, the Ministers also proposed that education must be prioritized in the recovery plans of each member States. This decision runs contrary to the UNESCO projections that only 2 percent of fiscal budgets among developing countries had been earmarked for education and, that 65 percent of governments in low-income countries have reduced funding for further education.

The ministerial forum took note of the achievements of the Global Education Coalition, that was launched one year ago by UNESCO to support learning continuity. The Coalition has 170 public, private and civil society partners and active in some 100 countries.

The meeting was opened by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and featured messages from UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Reported by：

Mehri Madarshahi

Former UN Senior Economist

Member of ICCSD Advisory Committee

Visiting Professor at IPP/SCUT

Source：

UNESCO