The World Bank Group President, David Malpass at United Nations General Assembly, has said its active funding portfolio for education in 95 countries now stands at $24 billion.
In a speech entitled: “The Global Challenge of Addressing the Learning Crisis Event,” he said the bank’s support to countries covers the entire learning cycle
“We have an active portfolio of $24 billion in education in over 95 countries and are the largest external financier of education for the developing world,” he said.
Malpass identified several competing needs and challenges facing many countries, including struggle to raise resources.
“We know that governments and communities are struggling to raise resources and prioritise their use in the face of severe overlapping crises. Governments face energy and food price shocks, high debt burdens, currency depreciation, sharp declines in international reserves, climate change, and the reversals in development caused by COVID-19,” Malpass said.
Despite these challenges, he said one of the best chances for a better future is to invest in education today and make sure each dollar of education spending is put toward improved learning.
“Unfortunately, the latest data indicate that education spending in low- and lower-middle-income countries in 2022 will be below 2019 levels,” he said.
The World Bank Group boss said the world is facing full-blown development crisis.
He said basic literacy, numeracy, and foundational skills are critical to face the unprecedented losses in global learning caused by prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Already before the pandemic, over half of children in low-and middle-income countries were living in learning poverty, which is the share of children unable to read and understand a basic text by the age of 10. Unfortunately, that share has increased to an estimated 70 per cent in 2022. Combined with the plunge in growth and investment, the world is facing a full-blown crisis in development,” he said.
According to World Bank estimates, each month of school closures caused not only a month’s loss of new learning but also the loss of a previous month’s learning, a setback of two months at a critical time for foundational learning.
“With school closures reaching one to two years in many countries, this adds up to massive learning losses globally and affects countries regardless of income level. Additionally, the complete shutdown of pre-schools means that hundreds of millions of children face inadequate nutrition and lack of early stimulation. And in some countries, dropouts have increased, especially among adolescents from low-income families. Girls living in conflict-affected countries are two and a half times more likely to be out of school,” the bank said.
Without decisive action, today’s students could lose 10 percent of their future average annual earnings and are likely to worsen inequality.
Malpass said global data showed that poorer children are significantly harder hit.
“These sobering statistics underscore the need to secure foundational learning for all children today.
We know that digital training, scientific knowledge, critical thinking, and communication skills are essential, yet hundreds of millions of children are losing ground at a critical time,” he said.
“Four steps are needed to recover these losses and accelerate learning. First, countries need to keep schools open and increase the hours per week of instruction. Second, it is important to correctly match instruction to a student’s level of learning and instructional needs, not where they left off. Third, a strong focus on foundational learning is critical – literacy, numeracy, and core learning skills would help teachers and students target their efforts more effectively. And fourth, recovering from this learning crisis requires funding to support it,” he stated.
