Learning poverty in Philippines to worsen due to COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Learning poverty – defined as being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 – is seen to worsen worldwide as the prolonged closure of schools is expected to cost the current generation of students $21 trillion across the globe.

An updated joint report of the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Fund revealed that the impact of the pandemic in the education sector is actually more severe than earlier expected.

According to the report, the current generation of students is at risk of losing $21 trillion in lifetime earnings due to school closures. This is equivalent to 17 percent of the global economy.

This latest estimate is higher than the $17 trillion in losses previously estimated, proving that impact among the younger generation is much more severe.

Unfortunately, all regions in the world are expected to see their learning crisis worsen with the global average at 70 percent, from the pre-COVID level of 57 percent.

It is anticipated to be worse in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia at around 80 to 90 percent.

In East Asia and the Pacific, learning poverty is seen worsening by around 45 percent from 35 percent pre-pandemic.

However, this still varies across economies, as low and middle income countries like the Philippines are expected to be hit worse.

Based on data from the report, learning poverty in the Philippines is at 90.9 percent while learning deprivation is at 90.4 percent as of 2019. The World Bank did not provide projections as to the increase in learning poverty on a per country basis.

“Since the onset of COVID, the school closures and disruptions caused by the pandemic have likely driven the learning poverty rate much higher still. Because of the long school closures and the ineffectiveness of remote learning attempts during the pandemic, seven out of 10 children in low and middle-income countries could now be suffering from learning poverty,” the report said.

“That would mean that due to this shock, an additional one out of every eight children in low and middle-income countries are now in learning poverty, and all of the gains in learning poverty that low and middle-income countries recorded since 2000 have been lost,” it said.

Without action, the international organizations said the current generation of students now risks losing $21 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value.

Relative to current incomes, this economic cost is disproportionately borne by low and middle-income countries, in which this generation of students could lose $11 trillion of lifetime earnings.

The report argued that the shock has worsened inequality within the current generation of children, as those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and other disadvantaged groups have suffered larger learning losses.

Overall, the report emphasized that it is not enough for children to return to school as the curriculum and teaching must adjust to meet students’ learning needs.

“As students fall further behind the curriculum, the risk grows that many will become disengaged and ultimately drop out of school,” the report said.

“Many countries are already implementing several policies, but scaling them up to all children in all countries is urgently needed,” it said.