World Bank disturbing report on education crisis in Latin America

“Due to the massive school closures, in February 2021, around 120 million school-aged children had lost or were at risk of losing a full year of the school calendar, with serious repercussions on education,” the agency in a report.

It is titled: “Act Now to Protect Our Children’s Human Capital: The Costs and Response to the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Education Sector in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

The text adds that learning poverty would have fallen from 51% to 62.5, which could be the equivalent of 7.6 million additional boys and girls in primary education who cannot write or understand a simple story.

In the early years of secondary school, the percentage of students unable to understand medium-length text increased from 55 to 71%.

It is estimated that if schools are closed for three more months, the rate would rise to 77%, affecting more low-income sectors.

“This is the worst education crisis ever in the region, and we fear that it could have serious and lasting consequences for a whole generation, especially in the most vulnerable sectors”, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean Carlos Jaramillo spoke.

The document states that “in the future, the enormous loss of education, human capital and productivity could translate into a decline in overall income at the regional level of $ 1.7 trillion.”

In this context, the multilateral organization stressed the need for urgent action to reverse the situation by preparing and funding countries so that they can reopen their schools in a safe and efficient manner, by combining face-to-face education and remotely.

In this sense, he was worried because less than 43% of primary schools and less than 62% of secondary schools have Internet access for educational purposes.

Finally, he points out that it is possible that school dropouts will increase by at least 15% due to the pandemic, interrupting access to education and also to other services that children receive in schools, such as than feeding programs, which reach 10 million students in the region.