News and Research 243

Kazakhstan: Knowledge, skills and health. Human capital needs development | World Bank – Government of Kazakhstan Roundtable | Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms under the President, with the Bank, held a round table on the topic: Kazakhstan: an overview of human capital development. The chairman of the Agency Kairat Kelimbetov addressed the meeting participants with a welcoming speech. To successfully exit the COVID-19 pandemic and resume economic growth, Kazakhstan needs to diversify its economy towards qualified sectors, invest in human capital and ensure that there are no obstacles to the productive use of human resources, experts said.

Equitable Human Capital Is a Top Priority for Kazakhstan | The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected Kazakhstan’s progress in strengthening human capital, warned experts during a virtual roundtable this week organized by the World Bank and the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The discussion aimed to facilitate a holistic and equity-oriented policy dialogue for informing investments and strategic plans to boost skills and productivity in the country… While Kazakhstan has made impressive economic progress, largely driven by rising exports of oil and gas and increasing productivity, since 2009 the country has seen a marked slowdown in economic growth… Today Kazakhstan’s economy lags in some key measures of innovation and competitiveness, and the state of skills development in the country is lower than in countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)… “COVID-19 has significantly undermined human capital development gains in Kazakhstan achieved over the last decade. The poorest and the most disadvantaged have been hit the hardest, and this will negatively impact their lifelong learning, future earnings, and socio-economic well-being. For Kazakhstan to enjoy sustainable growth, public policies and investments need to cater to the needs of the poorest and most disadvantaged regions and people. Greater emphasis is needed on the quality of education, skills development, and adult survival,” said Ayesha Vawda.

Announcing the winners of the third World Bank Group and Financial Times blog writing competition | The World Bank Group and the Financial Times just revealed the winners of the third edition of our joint blog writing competition for high school students.  In the context of COVID-19, we asked them, how we can help children learn, everywhere? Winning Entries:Learning after COVID-19: An education proposal | Online learning: The “trojan horse” of education | On behalf of my generation

The Impact of Summer Learning Programs on Low-Income Children’s Mathematics Achievement: A Meta-Analysis | A meta-analysis of 37 studies of summer programs in mathematics for children in grades pre-K-12 finds significant positive impact.

Primer on Large-Scale Assessments of Educational Achievement  To improve their education systems, countries around the world have increasingly initiated national largescale assessment programs or participated in international or regional large-scale assessment studies for the first time. Well-constructed large-scale assessments can provide credible information on student achievement levels, which, in turn, can promote better resource allocation to schools, stronger education service delivery, and improved learning outcomes.

Inadequate learning, loss of earnings: The staggering cost of school closures in Asia | from the ADB | covers Central Asia as well  | If safe re-opening and remedial actions are not prioritized, Asia’s students will bear the long-term costs of this pandemic.

Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 on Learning in rural Kenya | From a sample of 965 students, 53% exhibited declines in their levels of maths knowledge. The average loss among those students was 1.1 years.

Learning loss in South Korea during #COVID19 school closures  Seoul Education Research and Information Institute found that while the percentage of students with top grades stayed the same, the percentage of students with average grades dropped dramatically, increasing the achievement gap.

Finland allocates €68 Million to fight educational inequity due to #COVID-19 school closures  Ministry of Education invested €68 million in a fund that municipalities can use to mitigate inequities in their system.

Alberta adding financial literacy to high school curriculum  Ministry of Education will provide $1 million in grants for organizations to partner with schools to provide programming in financial literacy.

Uzbekistan: Vaccination of teachers and kindergarten staff has begun

Public-Private Partnership Projects Ongoing in Kazakhstan, Reach $3.3 Billion in Total Investments

Viktor Orban seizes control of Hungary’s universities

Now in print in Nature:

Angrist, N, S Djankov, P K Goldberg and H A Patrinos (2021), Measuring human capital using global learning data. Nature 592, 403–408

More HLO in the News and Blogs

Efekty kształcenia są ważniejsze od wskaźników skolaryzacji (Learning outcomes are more important than enrollment rates) While the world is on track to meet the goal of universal primary enrollment, this achievement will be of little consequence if we continue to see stagnation in learning outcomes. (Obserwator Ffinansowy.pl)

Человеческий капитал в школе (Human capital at school) When analyzing human capital, school education is usually assessed only on the basis of the duration of education. But this does not at all reflect its quality, the study confirmed, which for the first time allowed us to compare the level of knowledge and skills of schoolchildren around the world. (Econs.Online)

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