A new study, released on Friday by the UN cultural agency, has revealed  that more than 100 million  more children, than expected, are falling behind the minimum proficiency level in reading, due to COVID-related school closures.

According to the study from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), “One year into COVID: Prioritising education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe,” even before the  pandemic, the number of children  lacking basic reading skills  was on a downward curve.

A UNESCO statement said in 2020, instead of 460 million children experiencing reading difficulties, that number jumped to 584 million. The rise of more than 20 per cent,  wiped out two decades of education gains, the agency said.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, complete or  partial  closures have disrupted schooling for an average of 25 weeks, says the report, with the highest learning losses projected to be in Latin America, the Caribbean  region, and  in Central and Southern Asia.

While the report finds that a return to the pre-pandemic pathway  may take a  decade, it underscores that recovery could occur by 2024 “if exceptional efforts are  made  to provide  remedial  classes  and catch-up strategies”.

According to new data from a  joint survey conducted by UNESCO and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), only a quarter of students are benefiting from  remedial education.

While the number of students impacted by school closures has not significantly changed since the beginning of the pandemic,  countries are increasingly taking measures to  keep schools at least partially  open.

The report shows that schools are currently fully open in 107 countries, mostly in Africa, Asia and  Europe, serving 400 million  pre-primary  to secondary  learners.

Meanwhile, school closures in 30 countries are impacting some 165 million students.

At the same time, schools in 70 countries are partially open in various regions, for some grades, or with reduced in-person attendance – affecting  about two-thirds of the global  student population, or nearly one billion  learners.

(PANA/NAN)