Basic learning in Latin America and the Caribbean is going through its biggest crisis in a century.
Millions of girls and boys lost years of learning due to school closures during the pandemic.
Around four out of five primary school students may now not reach the minimum levels of knowledge and learning losses could mean a reduction in their income of 12% throughout their lives.
If we want to give them the future they deserve, basic education must become an immediate priority.
I have seen firsthand the effects of the pandemic on learning.
During a recent visit to Jamaica, a teacher told me that some students in her fourth grade class—ages eight and nine—still couldn't read or write when they should already be able to.
If you are familiar with children of that age, you know that they are capable of reading between the ages of six and seven on average.
The teacher, for her part, made an effort to support her students, but she had difficulties adding extra classes, which also shows the impact of the pandemic on teachers.
The fate of basic learning in Latin America and the Caribbean will be debated this week at a high-level meeting in Bogotá, Colombia.
The event is part of a global effort to ensure basic learning for all children and put in place policies that help achieve the global goal of providing quality education for all by 2030, which the UN says could not be reached due to the pandemic.
Teachers and students faced enormous challenges before the pandemic.
Education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean were already underperforming.
Less than half of the youth in the region finished primary school with minimal levels of knowledge.
The pandemic made the situation worse.
Schools in the region were closed longer than others, with an average of 84% of them partially or completely closed, compared to 52% globally.
Our youth lost up to 1.8 learning-adjusted years of schooling.
The most serious thing is that these losses can affect them for the rest of their lives.
The youngest children and those from poor families were among the most affected.
When the school went online, the children of families with more resources had access to computers and their parents were able to hire private teachers.
The poorest, on the other hand, often had to share a cell phone to attend classes.
The impact of this situation threatens to further amplify the already substantial inequality observed in the region.
And these figures only tell part of the story.
Vicente, a student from Panquehue in Chile, said that online learning carries invisible costs.
As we know, mental health and well-being have been greatly affected by the pandemic, but they are also factors that accentuated the learning crisis.
After the years of the pandemic, we already have a first diagnosis of the impact of its consequences on learning.
And we also know what the remedy is.
To recover and lay the foundations for long-term improvements, countries must prioritize basic education in their curricula, carry out assessments of student learning levels, and implement programs and strategies to recover lost teaching. and innovative pedagogical approaches to achieve teaching at the level of each student.
It is also essential that teachers receive support and training and that schools are safe and inclusive.
These measures must be complemented by attention to the mental health of students and investments to give poor students the same access to digital learning as those with more resources.
The meeting of ministers and experts in Bogotá seeks to obtain commitment from the countries not only to recover learning losses, but also to improve basic education in the long term.
It is time for nations to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that all children, including the most marginalized, develop the basic skills necessary to reach their full potential.
Another important objective of the meeting is to highlight best practices, of which there are very good examples.
Learning assessments include the large-scale APRENDER initiative in Argentina, as well as the DIA training diagnostic assessment in Chile.
Ecuador prioritized its curriculum during the pandemic emergency, and designed an effective learning remediation program;
Colombia can take advantage of successful learning reinforcement programs such as Aula Global.
Several countries are carrying out curricular reforms to strengthen fundamental skills and have already taken steps to support teachers.
Basic education is essential for the jobs of the future.
Let's do everything possible to give today's children and young people the opportunity to lead a full life as they deserve.
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo
is Vice President of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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