Floods, Learning Loss and Other News (News and Research 310)
Pakistan’s Floods are Deepening its Learning Crisis Pakistan recently experienced one of the worst floods in the country’s history. Heavy monsoon rains, about 6 times the average of the last thirty years, have affected more than 33 million people. Around one-third of the country’s land mass is under water. We hope that this crisis is an international wake-up call, making clear that school systems urgently need to be made more climate resilient. Schools are heavily affected by the floods, as are other basic services.
Experts say schools could recover pandemic losses by 2028. What then? Doing better than before the pandemic would require more effort than we seem capable of giving. When will the U.S. education system return to the learning levels of 2019? One headline summed up the problem this way: “Two Decades of Growth Wiped Out by Two Years of Pandemic.” People who have been studying our schools for decades are cautious when answering my question. Some say reading and math averages could rebound by 2028, but they admit many children will never get everything they missed.
Europe and Central Asia Economic Update: Social Protection for Recovery The Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a massive human displacement crisis, adding to already historically high global refugee levels. Output in Europe and Central Asia is forecast to contract 0.2 percent in 2022, reflecting negative spillovers from the invasion. Escalating geopolitical tensions have triggered a possible energy crunch in Europe. If the war escalates, regional output could decline even further. This update summarizes recent developments and presents the economic outlook for the Europe and Central Asia region. It also focuses on social protection, which is a key policy instrument for protecting workers and households from adverse shocks faced by the region, and on the policy options that countries have to address the energy crisis.
Reading and math skills development among Finnish primary school children before and after COVID-19 school closure This study quantified the possible learning losses in reading and math skills among a sample of Finnish Grade 3 children who spent 8 weeks in distance learning during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. The results showed, on average, lower reading skills in the COVID sample than in the pre-COVID sample but there were no differences in math skills. Although the COVID sample had lower levels in reading, their developmental trajectories in reading and math skills were not different from the pre-COVID sample before the pandemic in Grades 1 and 2. From Grade 2 to 4, however, the development was slower in reading fluency and comprehension in the COVID sample, but not in math. The predictors of change from Grade 2 to 4 in reading and math skills were not different in the samples. The results showed that the development of reading skills in particular may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching This paper examines the role of student facial attractiveness on academic outcomes under various forms of instruction, using data from engineering students in Sweden. When education is in-person, attractive students receive higher grades in non-quantitative subjects, in which teachers tend to interact more with students compared to quantitative courses. This finding holds both for males and females. When instruction moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the grades of attractive female students deteriorated in non-quantitative subjects. However, the beauty premium persisted for males, suggesting that discrimination is a salient factor in explaining the grade beauty premium for females only.
Covid, colleges, and classes At the start of the 2020 school year, some colleges chose to reopen in person while others offered primarily online classes. We find that colleges responded to financial and other incentives largely as one might expect. Larger shares of revenue attributed to in-person activities, such as dorms and dining halls, led schools to reopen in person. In general, the share of revenue due to tuition and fees had little association with reopening in-person, which is consistent with the idea that the effect of the mode of reopening on enrolment was ambiguous. However, private schools experiencing financial distress due to tuition and fees were more likely to reopen in-person while public schools were less likely. Public colleges were influenced by political pressures and the fraction of students from out of state, while private schools responded to the severity of COVID in their local community.
In the news:
Le National: Ledikasyon pa negosyab… Depuis le milieu du 20e siècle, les chercheurs des grandes agences multilatérales comme les banques de développement internationales (Banque Mondiale, BID…) ont commencé à réaliser ce que Patrinos (2016) [8] exprime : « L’éducation est de toute évidence l’un des instruments les plus puissants pour lutter contre la pauvreté et les inégalités, ainsi que pour jeter les bases d’une croissance économique solide. Il est grand temps d’investir davantage dans ce secteur. »
Schoolchildren Deserve Free Lunch … With schools reopening, the scale of the learning losses triggered by school closures is coming fully to light, along with evidence of widening inequalities.
Covid Catch-Up Initiative Ends Amid Concern Over Gaps In Children’s Learning – The Irish Times … The extent of learning loss in Irish schools has yet to be formally established. However, a majority of international studies indicate that losses equivalent to nearly a half year’s worth of learning have occurred since the pandemic.
Five ways to build resilience in Nigeria’s education system… Meanwhile, evidence suggests about half a year’s worth of learning loss on average across the country. In other African countries with data, the learning loss ranges from eight months (South Africa) to two years (Uganda).
(What we can do to recover the lost learning of children in Nepal)ネパールの子どもたちの失われた学びを取り戻すために私たちが出来ること Sarthak Blog こんにちは、理事の畠山です。新型コロナによって発生した学びの損失を取り戻すための2年計画を実施しますので、今日はそれを紹介させて下さい。1.新型コロナによる学びの損失とは?続きをみる
Other:
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- Free Primary Schooling in the DRC? Where we are on the road to reform
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