Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates

School closures due to COVID-19 have left more than a billion students out of school. This paper presents the results of simulations considering three, five and seven months of school closure and different levels of mitigation effectiveness resulti...

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Main Authors: Azevedo, Joao Pedro, Hasan, Amer, Goldemberg, Diana, Iqbal, Syedah Aroob, Geven, Koen
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/329961592483383689/Simulating-the-Potential-Impacts-of-COVID-19-School-Closures-on-Schooling-and-Learning-Outcomes-A-Set-of-Global-Estimates
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33945
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spelling okr-10986-339452022-09-20T00:08:51Z Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates Azevedo, Joao Pedro Hasan, Amer Goldemberg, Diana Iqbal, Syedah Aroob Geven, Koen CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT SCHOOL CLOSURE LEARNING LOSS LEARNING OUTCOMES EDUCATION DROPOUT RATE School closures due to COVID-19 have left more than a billion students out of school. This paper presents the results of simulations considering three, five and seven months of school closure and different levels of mitigation effectiveness resulting in optimistic, intermediate and pessimistic global scenarios. Using data on 157 countries, the analysis finds that the global level of schooling and learning will fall. COVID-19 could result in a loss of between 0.3 and 0.9 years of schooling adjusted for quality, bringing down the effective years of basic schooling that students achieve during their lifetime from 7.9 years to between 7.0 and 7.6 years. Close to 7 million students from primary up to secondary education could drop out due to the income shock of the pandemic alone. Students from the current cohort could, on average, face a reduction of $355, $872, or $1,408 in yearly earnings. In present value terms, this amounts to between $6,472 and $25,680 dollars in lost earnings over a typical student's lifetime. Exclusion and inequality will likely be exacerbated if already marginalized and vulnerable groups, like girls, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, are more adversely affected by the school closures. Globally, a school shutdown of 5 months could generate learning losses that have a present value of $10 trillion. By this measure, the world could stand to lose as much as 16 percent of the investments that governments make in the basic education of this cohort of students. The world could thus face a substantial setback in achieving the goal of halving the percentage of learning poor and be unable to meet the goal by 2030 unless drastic remedial action is taken. 2020-06-18T15:44:36Z 2020-06-18T15:44:36Z 2020-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/329961592483383689/Simulating-the-Potential-Impacts-of-COVID-19-School-Closures-on-Schooling-and-Learning-Outcomes-A-Set-of-Global-Estimates http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33945 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9284 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
SCHOOL CLOSURE
LEARNING LOSS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
EDUCATION
DROPOUT RATE
spellingShingle CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
SCHOOL CLOSURE
LEARNING LOSS
LEARNING OUTCOMES
EDUCATION
DROPOUT RATE
Azevedo, Joao Pedro
Hasan, Amer
Goldemberg, Diana
Iqbal, Syedah Aroob
Geven, Koen
Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9284
description School closures due to COVID-19 have left more than a billion students out of school. This paper presents the results of simulations considering three, five and seven months of school closure and different levels of mitigation effectiveness resulting in optimistic, intermediate and pessimistic global scenarios. Using data on 157 countries, the analysis finds that the global level of schooling and learning will fall. COVID-19 could result in a loss of between 0.3 and 0.9 years of schooling adjusted for quality, bringing down the effective years of basic schooling that students achieve during their lifetime from 7.9 years to between 7.0 and 7.6 years. Close to 7 million students from primary up to secondary education could drop out due to the income shock of the pandemic alone. Students from the current cohort could, on average, face a reduction of $355, $872, or $1,408 in yearly earnings. In present value terms, this amounts to between $6,472 and $25,680 dollars in lost earnings over a typical student's lifetime. Exclusion and inequality will likely be exacerbated if already marginalized and vulnerable groups, like girls, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, are more adversely affected by the school closures. Globally, a school shutdown of 5 months could generate learning losses that have a present value of $10 trillion. By this measure, the world could stand to lose as much as 16 percent of the investments that governments make in the basic education of this cohort of students. The world could thus face a substantial setback in achieving the goal of halving the percentage of learning poor and be unable to meet the goal by 2030 unless drastic remedial action is taken.
format Working Paper
author Azevedo, Joao Pedro
Hasan, Amer
Goldemberg, Diana
Iqbal, Syedah Aroob
Geven, Koen
author_facet Azevedo, Joao Pedro
Hasan, Amer
Goldemberg, Diana
Iqbal, Syedah Aroob
Geven, Koen
author_sort Azevedo, Joao Pedro
title Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates
title_short Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates
title_full Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates
title_fullStr Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates
title_full_unstemmed Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes : A Set of Global Estimates
title_sort simulating the potential impacts of covid-19 school closures on schooling and learning outcomes : a set of global estimates
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/329961592483383689/Simulating-the-Potential-Impacts-of-COVID-19-School-Closures-on-Schooling-and-Learning-Outcomes-A-Set-of-Global-Estimates
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33945
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