How will countries make up for lost learning during the pandemic?

According to UNESCO nearly two-thirds of the academic year has been lost worldwide due to school closures caused by the pandemic. In spite of the logic and pragmatism in some countries in their approach to catching-up the lost learning – as reported in these posts – other countries are taking a more controversial route. The government of Kenya has decided that all students will repeat the full education year, believing that “having students repeat the entire year puts them all on equal footing”. India and Canada are reducing and synthesizing the curriculum “so that students are able to focus on a few subjects and learn them well”. McKinsey with UNESCO has come up with a toolkit to look at two options. The first is to allow students more time to learn, through “summer classes, weekend catch-up, or extra time at the end of the day”. The other is to have dedicated attention “through smaller breakout groups or one-to-one tutoring for the most disadvantaged learners”. But with governments managing smaller education budgets this is a huge problem. While the cost of remediation and catch-up programmes for low- and lower-middle-income countries is high, investing now, instead of waiting, might reduce the cost of recovery of education by up to 75%.

https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/how-will-countries-make-up-for-lost-learning-during-the-pandemic