Learning Losses in Ukraine can amount to over one year (News and Research 290)
The Loss of Human Capital in Ukraine | School disruptions due to war, pandemics, or natural disasters can have persistent negative effects on learning outcomes. There are learning losses due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From a position of relative parity with its neighbours pre-pandemic, learning outcomes in Ukraine are now estimated to be below the lowest-performing countries in Europe. Opening classes for Ukrainian refugees, providing online or by-phone tutoring, or adapting curricula for refugees can help minimise the long-term impacts of the conflict. Harmonized Learning Outcomes (HLO) data show that Ukraine performs at par with its regional neighbours in eastern Europe, including Bulgaria and Croatia, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion.
Continued school closures only exacerbate learning losses in Ukraine. Schools were closed or disrupted due to Covid-19 for 31 weeks in Ukraine, or about 7.75 months. We add another two months due to the war to-date. Many Ukrainian children will take a lot longer to come back to the classroom. The war in Ukraine has resulted in more than 5.2 million Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries. The refugees include primarily children, women, and older people, as all men below the age of 60 have been conscripted in the army. The number of internally displaced persons – those who have been forced from their homes but are still in Ukraine – exceed seven million. These children will likely not go back to school before the fall, losing at least five additional months of school time. This simple calculation suggests that learning losses in Ukraine can amount to over one year, due to a combination of extended pandemic-related closures and the war. Estimates of HLO due to this length of school closure could fall from 481 to about 451 points, below the lowest performing countries in Europe. The long-term effect could be substantial, with future earnings losses of more than 10% a year per student.
The Ukrainians teaching in a war zone: bombed-out schools, evacuations and board games| Educators have assisted in rescue efforts and sought to ease children’s fears by creating spaces ‘where kids can feel like kids’.
CNN Tonight – Teach for Ukraine
Teach for All Response to the War in Ukraine | The war in Ukraine is taking a devastating toll on children, families, and communities. Since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the country has endured the unconscionable targeting and bombing of hundreds of schools, homes, and hospitals, the deaths of more than two thousand Ukrainians—including more than 170 children—and the displacement of millions, both within the country and beyond its borders. Those who remain live in fear that they will be the next casualties of the war, while they continue to work together to defend their homeland and people. The Teach For All network fervently hopes for an immediate end to this war. In the meantime, we are doing all we can to support Ukrainian children and families.
Scale of Refugees From Ukraine War on Display in Poland’s Public Schools | Around 200,000 children have enrolled in schools since Russia invaded Ukraine; an estimated half-million are living in Poland and not yet enrolled.
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Georgian Finance Minister talks human capital importance at World Bank forum | Significance of human capital development in Georgia was raised by the country’s Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili on Wednesday at an online forum organised by the World Bank. In comments at the remote meeting Khutsishvili pointed out the role of the field in the long-term development of the country and highlighted the need for new and innovative approaches in the area, the Ministry said. Reforms implemented by the Government in primary, vocational and higher education systems were also discussed by the official, who noted “significant funds” had been spent on upgrading school infrastructure and modernising universities. With the focus on attracting additional investment in the healthcare and social care sectors, the Minister discussed the World Bank’s $400 million Human Capital Programme for Georgia, which seeks to increase the efficiency of service delivery in the fields. Khutsishvili thanked the institution for its support of Georgia and called the development of human capital in the country “one of the main key preconditions” for sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
Keeping Kids in School and Out of Work: Compulsory Schooling and Child Labor in Turkey | The reform reduces child labor by 4.8 percentage points (28 percent) for 12- to 17-year-olds and by 1.7 percentage points (81-percent) for 7- to 11-year-olds. For girls, the probability of spending long hours on household chores also reduces.
The Rationalization of “Education for All”: The Worldwide Rise of National Assessments, 1960–2011 | Using an original data set of 132 countries, from 1960 to 2011, it is shown that national assessments have expanded rapidly after 1990, especially at the primary-school level. Results from event history analyses indicate that the adoption of a country’s first national assessment test is shaped by its linkages to international nongovernmental organizations, the World Bank, and its education research output. Countries that maintain institutional structures that reflect older logics of educational selection and stratification are less likely to adopt a national assessment.
Energy poverty and education: Fresh evidence from a panel of developing countries| Education generates a negative impact on energy poverty. The findings remain robust under different approximations of energy poverty, incurring significant implications for policymakers and government officials.
Event
Education Impacts of the Covid-19 School Closures | Mitigating the Learning Losses Caused by the COVID-19 School Closures | Conference jointly organized by World Bank and IDEA at CERGE-EI | 21 June 2022, 13:00 – 18:00 (Central European Summer Time – UTC +2) | Prague, CERGE-EI (The Schebek Palace, Politických vězňů 7, Prague 1) | Format: Hybrid: online and in-person | Register Now | The objective of this conference is to document the size and determinants of the learning loss brought about by school closures, identify policy options to reverse these losses, and setting the bases of a more resilient education system. The Conference is divided into three parts: (1) An overview of the pre-pandemic global learning crisis and the mechanisms through which this was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) The elements of a “Learning Recovery Plan” based on recent evidence of interventions that have proven to be effective to improve learning, particularly among disadvantaged students; and (3) Lessons that can be drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic in the road towards the construction of a more resilient, efficient, and equitable education system. The Conference will be concluded by a panel summarizing a call to action. (Confirmed speakers: Daniel Münich (IDEA at CERGE-EI), Nuno Crato (University of Lisbon), Maciej Jakubowski (University of Warsaw), Lucas Gortazar (EsadeEcPol), Vaclav Korbel (IDEA at CERGE-EI). Thierry Rocher (Ministère de l’éducation nationale and Université Paris X Nanterre), Hjalte Meilvang (Ministry of Education, Denmark), Rafael de Hoyos, Harry Patrinos (World Bank).
Education, economics and public policy 