Teachers, parents and children were not prepared for the closure of schools. Co-author Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen, the Carlsberg Foundation visiting fellow at DSPI, notes, ’Children in poorer countries lost out on more learning than their peers in richer countries. Low-income countries were already struggling with a learning crisis before the pandemic. The pandemic is likely deepening this learning crisis and reversing past progress.’The study urges policy action to address setbacks in children’s learning. Dr Betthäuser says, ‘Some countries have already invested substantial resources into such policies, but we need more evidence to understand their effectiveness.
