Learning losses must be assessed for children’s education, schools should remain open, suggests GEEAP

Prioritise keeping schools and preschools fully open to overcome learning losses during pandemic, recommends Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP). It further adds that the large educational, economic, social, and mental health costs of school closures and the inadequacy of remote learning strategies as substitutes for in-person learning make it clear that school closures should be a last resort.

“Recovering learning loss that children have experienced requires more than reopening classrooms. School children need support at the right level to get back on track, teachers need access to quality training and resources, and education systems need to be transformed,” said Abhijit Banerjee, co-chair, GEEAP. 

According to the recommendations, COVID-19 vaccination for teachers must be prioritised to reduce the risk of transmission in schools. “Adjust instruction to support the learning needs of children and focus on important foundational skills. It is critical to assess students’ learning levels as schools reopen. Targeting instruction tailored to a child’s learning level has proven cost-effective and helped students to catch up,” the report suggests.

Furthermore, it recommends that the governments must ensure teachers have adequate support to help children learn. “Interventions that provide teachers with carefully structured and simple pedagogical programs have been found to be cost-effective ways to increase literacy and numeracy,” it adds

“We must continue to sound the alarm on the crisis in education and ensure that policy makers have clear evidence for how to recover from the catastrophic learning losses and prevent a lost generation,” Jaime Saavedra, panel member, Global Director for Education, World Bank said.

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