While the widespread disruptions to schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic risk deepening the existing education inequalities worldwide, some donor countries have already begun to shift their budget away from aid towards domestic priorities.
A recent report conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reveals alarming figures concerning children’s education. Whereas before the pandemic, the number of schoolchildren who lacked elementary reading skills was decreasing with the forecast for this to fall from 483 million to 460 million in 2020, as a consequence of the coronavirus this prediction has now jumped to 584 million, an increase of more than 20%, which eradicates the improvements achieved over the past few years thanks to the efforts of those involved in education.
Overall, of the 100 million children of different ages who are projected to fall below the proficiency threshold, it is expected that 34 million will be children in Central and Southern Asia and 29 million from Eastern and South-eastern Asia. The assessment shows that these two regions will be the worst affected regions in absolute terms, the report continued.
UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Stefania Giannini, confirms these findings, “Health and other emergencies are also competing for funds. Overall, we predict a challenging environment for countries reliant on education aid, estimating that it may fall by $2 billion from its peak in 2020 and not return to 2018 levels for another six years”.
At the same time, besides the critical situation caused by the pandemic, two-thirds of low-and lower-middle-income countries have reviewed their budgets for education amid the crisis and cut resources according to the “Education Finance Watch” report produced by the World Bank (WB) and UNESCO.
According to the WB, the learning poverty crisis that existed before COVID-19 is now becoming even more severe. The organization is also concerned about how unequal the impact is.
World Bank Vice President for Human Development, Mamta Murthi, “This is a critical moment when countries need to recover the learning losses the pandemic is generating, invest in remedial education, and use this window of opportunity to build more effective, equitable, and resilient systems.”
To target the challenges brought about by the pandemic to the educational sector, UNESCO convened an international ministerial conference, attended by 85 education ministers, at the end of March. The event aimed to address three vital concerns relating to education policies: reopening schools and supporting teachers, mitigating drop-out and learning losses, and accelerating the digital transformation.
As a result, UNESCO, UNICEF, and the WB agreed to join forces to ensure all school children and youth return to school in a proper manner with inclusive support including health, nutrition, and psycho-social assistance, to guarantee teachers’ empowerment and to decrease the existing gaps related to distance learning.
Then UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, who was present at the event, called on all countries to use the recovery to narrow the education divides. “At this pivotal moment, I am calling on all countries (to) use the recovery to narrow education divides, expand digital connectivity and reimagine education.”
