The Poverty of Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean

A World Bank report says that the learning metrics of all educational levels have been harshly affected in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the pandemic, causing poor learning in the region.

Previously, in the Observatory, there has been discussion about “unfinished learning,” which refers to students who did not complete learning during the pandemic compared to a typical year. Primary and secondary students in the United States are five months behind in mathematics and four months in reading, but what about Latin America? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region is experiencing an unprecedented educational crisis. Of the 25 countries globally that have had the highest number of deaths per million inhabitants, six belong to Latin America. With this situation, educational systems have had to close longer than other regions. After the commotion and chaos of the first weeks of the pandemic, most countries began working on creating ways to ensure that education continued during the school closures. However, achieving adequate participation and educational quality has been challenging despite efforts to reach students, families, and educators.

The World Bank published a report entitled, “Let’s act now to protect the human capital of our children: The costs and response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education sector in Latin America and the Caribbean,” explaining the current situation in the region. The report is a World Bank analysis of the potential educational tragedy in the LAC region and confirms the importance of protecting the future of the region’s children.

To prevent or mitigate this educational tragedy, countries have made various efforts to deal with the pandemic. Most countries turned to technology for educational continuity, using the internet and traditional media such as television, radio, and printed materials. The focus has been on supporting parents and teachers to make education more inclusive. The problem has been a significant digital divide in the region, which challenged the education systems to face the COVID-19 crisis and the difficulties of educational continuity, participation, quality, and inclusion. Only 77% of 15-year-old students have internet access at home.

To meet this challenge, several countries turned to programs they had used before, like Mexico, which used the multimodal “Learn at Home” initiative launched in 1998. This initiative reached 25 million students during the closure of the schools. Another example is Uruguay, which used a comprehensive online learning platform that already existed. Eighty-five percent of homes already had connectivity long before the pandemic in that country, making it one of the best prepared Latin American countries for remote education.

Regarding internet connectivity in Latin America and the Caribbean, only 77% of 15-year-old students have internet access at home from electronic devices like computers, cell phones, and tablets. Although more than half, that is 19 percentage points lower than the OECD average. Connectivity is even worse among low-income students: only 45%. This figure varies from country to country. In Peru, 14% in this category have access to the internet; in Mexico,19%; Panama, 24%; and Colombia, 25%. As the region has faced these challenges, distance education strategies have affected a large percentage of the population. According to information from UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank, all LAC countries used printed materials (the global average is 85%), 86% used digital platforms, 84% television, and 63% used radio learning. According to the survey, television is the medium with the highest reach: 88% of households in the region.

However, the World Bank argues that “distance education is not a natural substitute for face-to-face education” as it “is not suitable for imparting many skills acquired in schools.” The authors point out that the LAC region already faced an educational crisis before the pandemic, experiencing learning poverty and unequal outcomes. According to World Bank estimates, 51% of children in Latin America and the Caribbean could not read or understand a simple text by age 10; the global average was 48%. Moreover, this situation varies among countries, ranging from 21% in Trinidad and Tobago to 81% in the Dominican Republic.

Learning loss in the region

According to initial estimates by the World Bank, “the absence of face-to-face education due to school closures could lead to approximately two out of three students not being able to read or understand age-appropriate texts.” They consider that learning poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean “could increase by more than 20 percent,” which translates to one in three elementary school students not being able to read or understand a text at the level they require for their age. Using PISA test results, the percentage of students who are unable to identify the main points of a text and be able to analyze and reflect on it could increase from 55% to 70% after schools closed for ten months. Compared to other regions, LAC is one of those with the most students with the minimum performance, only surpassed by the Middle East and North Africa, whose percentage in this category is 71% and 88% in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Unlike in the United States, where school closures lasted five to seven months, in the LAC region, the learning setback could be nearly 1.3 years of schooling for students whose schools closed for ten months; in the cases of the schools closed for 13 months, the loss is estimated to be 1.7 years. If the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) score is considered, the World Bank estimates that 71% of students entering secondary school would be below the minimum. Again, this means that “two out of almost every three students in lower secondary education will not be able to understand a text of moderate length.” According to the report, as measured by the PISA score, reading comprehension could decrease by 38 points if schools closed for ten months. The report remarks that “with more than 80 percent of students below the minimum level of achievement, learning losses could prevent students from developing skills and competencies considered fundamental in several countries.” Thus, the socio-economic gap in education would increase by 12%. The most privileged students could have, on average, almost three years more schooling than their lower-income peers, which the World Bank describes as a “tragedy.”

Unfinished learning in the region is not new; even before the pandemic, less privileged students already learned less. However, now fear has increased that more will drop out of school. Simulations conducted in the study suggest that school dropouts in Latin America and the Caribbean could increase by 15%. In the worst-case scenario, LAC’s “learning poverty” would increase from 53% to 63%, representing 72 million children. Even so, the biggest problem generated by the pandemic could be students below the minimum required level of school performance rather than learning poverty.

To estimate learning loss, the World Bank uses a tool to assess the effects of school closures called “Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS),” which means “learning-adjusted schooling.” The organization states, “it combines the schooling that children generally achieve with the quality of learning during the school years compared to a specific benchmark.” These results vary among LAC countries, considering those al
ready in poor condition before COVID-19 and if schools closed 10 or 13 months. In its report, the World Bank also investigated how learning loss could affect students’ income throughout their lives. They used return-to-education, life expectancy, and labor market data to calculate this. The 10-month closure found that the student could lose $23.63 of income weekly, equivalent to $1,313 annually.

The impact of COVID-19 will also vary among countries. In those with lower performance, learning poverty will cause students not to develop fundamental skills to succeed in the future. The nations will have to invest more resources to mitigate harmful effects and remedy education. According to the World Bank, the learning losses could account for up to 88% of what students learn in a school year. In a report for Chile, the organization considered several mitigation factors to estimate education in different scenarios and concluded that up to 88% of learning loss could be experienced in a school year.

It is crucial to recognize the inequalities within the region’s countries. Those less privileged are the most affected due to lack of access to distance education, low participation in online distance classes, and economic or family problems. Analysis of the PISA test scores suggests the wealthiest students could lose up to 30% of learning, while the poorest could lose up to 41%. In addition, the report says that “the socio-economic achievement gap among students could increase from 94 to 105 PISA points, which equates to about a quarter of a year of schooling.” In Chile, disadvantaged young people could lose up to 95% of what they learn in a regular year if institutions closed for ten months, while the most privileged would lose 64%. In Colombia, the loss of learning for fifth-grade students with economic difficulties could be double that of the most advantaged, widening the gap even more. In Costa Rica, those with fewer financial resources could lose almost one school year more than the wealthier. However, this inequality is nothing new; in the 2018 PISA test, the gap was equivalent to 2.5 years of education in the Dominican Republic and 4.1 years of schooling in the case of Peru.

The World Bank is calling for action. They say that “all learning metrics are becoming drastically worse and the effects of the pandemic permeate many other areas of student’s lives as well,” but all is not lost. The authors mention three critical phrases needed to address the crisis:

1. Confronting the challenge of the school closures.

2. Managing education continuity and recovering learning during the reopening of schools.

3. Accelerating and boosting improvements for the long term.

We will cover the latter in an article to be published next week.

What do you think of the World Bank’s results? Do you feel there is a real educational tragedy in Latin America and the Caribbean? How do you think the next generations will be affected by this learning poverty? Please leave us your answers in the comments.

Translation by Daniel Wetta

Paulette Delgado

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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0