In June 2022, the Indian government released its first National Learning Assessment since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic (the National Achievement Survey), showing that student learning skills in most states had plummeted over the past two years. The average learning proficiency rate across all classes and subjects has increased from 48% in 2017 to 34% in 2021. This is a trend that has been observed around the world and gives an idea of the effect of school closures and the wider impacts of Covid-19. 19 pandemic have had on the education of children around the world.
It is feared that these impacts threaten to reduce the potential of children for years to come. To help children catch up, we need to focus on each child’s current situation. We need to assess their level of learning and then focus classroom teaching on closing the gaps between desired and actual student learning by focusing on core subjects, using approaches that align teaching with needs learning, thanks to a longer systemic approach.
UNICEF is co-host of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Group (GEEAP) alongside the World Bank and the UK government. GEEAP consists of 13 expert panelists from around the world, including three from India; 2019 Nobel Laureate Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, 2021 Yidan Prize Laureate Dr. Rukmini Banerji and Prof. Karthik Muralidharan all contributed to the panels’ understanding of how we strengthen global education systems.
Overall, the panel’s goal is to improve the use of evidence in education policy decisions around the world. GEEAP recently published a report – Prioritizing learning during COVID-19: The most effective ways to ensure children learn during and after the pandemic – which provides recommendations on how to meet post Covid-19 educational needs.
In June, GEEAP members met with the Indian ministerial delegation to the World Education Forum in London, an annual event where ministers from around the world come together to share their challenges and successes. They discussed how the report’s recommendations could contribute to the recovery of the education system in India after the impact of the disruption of the pandemic on the normal school routine, including the complete and partial closure of schools for long periods. . Such disruptions had a ripple effect on students’ abilities.
Noted recommendations from the report include:
- Adjust instruction to meet children’s learning needs and focus on important foundational skills. Assessing student learning levels is essential when schools reopen. Targeting instruction appropriate to a child’s learning level has proven to be cost-effective and helped students catch up.
- Governments must ensure that teachers have adequate support to help children learn. Interventions that provide teachers with carefully structured and simple instructional programs have proven to be cost-effective ways to increase literacy and numeracy.
- Prioritize keeping schools and kindergartens fully open. The high educational, economic, social and mental health costs of school closures and the unsuitability of remote learning strategies as substitutes for in-person learning make it clear that school closures should be a last resort.
- Prioritize teachers for Covid-19 vaccination, and use masks where appropriate, and improve ventilation. The risk of transmission in schools can be greatly reduced when a combination of these mitigation measures are taken, but they should not be prerequisites for keeping schools open.
The panel also calls on governments to support parental engagement and leverage existing technology.
In India, a proactive approach has already been taken to gather evidence around levels of learning, this means there is knowledge on how best to respond to the impacts of Covid-19 and allows teachers to focus on learning. teaching adjustment – to ensure that their students are taught at the right level, helping them recover from their learning loss. This is one of the recommendations of the GEEAP report and we have discussed it in detail with policy makers, researchers and educators in delhi this month of July.
The GEEAP recommendations already align with some of the goals detailed in India’s National Education Policy (NEP), which was drafted in July 2020. Both show how we can and should use research and evidence to develop an effective education policy.
The NEP and GEEAP recommendations focus on what is needed to transform learning levels in schools, particularly to build the literacy and numeracy skills that every student needs to acquire as a foundation for further education. India’s World Bank and UNICEF operations in the country reflect GEEAP recommendations and have a strong emphasis on basic learning. GEEAP notes the importance of adjusting the way we teach to ensure that we are teaching at the level of the child. This advice was based on evidence gathered from around the world, including India.
There are local examples of how this is working, such as hiring women from the community to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills to children who are lagging behind in public schools, highlighting the importance of school assistants. teaching to improve learning and targeted pedagogical approaches. This program increased the average test scores of all children in the treatment schools.
More evidence is expected to be published by GEEAP in the future. The panel and its co-hosts will continue to work with local policy makers to share their findings and support updated evidence in education policy decisions.