The pandemic in Latin America: a -year setback in education?
If the impact has been high in countries with solid educational systems, in which families have a relatively high educational level and access to educational and technological materials, it is not surprising that in Latin America the impact has been really harsh and very unequal, affecting much more strength to the population with fewer resources and rural areas . It is estimated that in low- and middle-income countries, the proportion of children who are not able to read and understand simple text by the end of primary school could increase from % to % as a result of the pandemic. Furthermore, the proportion of young people in lower secondary school below the minimum level of performance, according to the indicator that uses the international PISA test scores, could increase from its current.
World Bank reveals that of the low-income
Countries surveyed, only half have national or regional plans to measure student learning; a quarter do not know how many students have returned to school after the pandemic; two-thirds of countries have implemented an abbreviated or prioritized curriculum, and only % are implementing learning recovery strategies on a national scale. We also know that the educational impact of the pandemic will also have long-term economic consequences throughout the world . It is estimated that, as a result of school closures, the current generation of students could lose in income, throughout their lives, up to the equivalent of billion dollars in present value, which would represent % of current global GDP ( World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF.
In Latin America, this means that we face
The risk of losing an important part of the advances in educational inclusion of the last twenty years , since the pandemic – and its effects on families’ economies – could cause an increase in school dropouts and a fall of educational coverage, as occurred in the crisis of the s. This is the first thing to avoid: governments and educational communities must use all their tools – which fortunately today are many more than they had in the past – to stop an increase in educational exclusion . In addition, educational authorities must promote strategies so that educational centers can organize learning processes that recognize the diversity of the experiences lived by their students during the pandemic, giving priority to the strategic learning essential to continue advancing and starting from the previous level achieved by each student.
