By Okeoghene Akubuike

The World Bank says the COVID-19 pandemic caused a collapse in human capital hindering development of millions of children and young people in low- and middle-income countries.

This is according to the new World Bank report: “Collapse and Recovery: How COVID-19 Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It’’.

A statement issued by the World Bank on Thursday obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said the report analysed global data on the pandemic’s impacts on young people at key developmental stages.

It said the stages were early childhood (0-5 years), school age (6-14 years), and youth (15-24 years).

“The report found that today’s students could lose up to 10 per cent of their future earnings due to COVID-19-induced education shocks.

“Also that the cognitive deficit in today’s toddlers could translate into a 25 per cent decline in earnings when these children are adults.’’

The statement quoted World Bank Group President, David Malpass as saying, “the pandemic and school closures threatened to wipe out decades of progress in building human capital.

“Targeted policies to reverse the losses in foundational learning, health, and skills are critical to avoid jeopardising the development of multiple generations.

“Countries need to chart a new course for greater human capital investments to help citizens become more resilient to the overlapping threats of health shocks, conflicts, slow growth and climate change.’’

Malpass said countries also need to lay a solid foundation for faster and more inclusive growth.

The statement said due to the pandemic, preschool-age children in multiple countries had lost more than 34 per cent of learning in early language and literacy.

It said the preschool children had also lost more than 29 per cent of learning in maths, compared to pre-pandemic cohorts.

It said even after schools had reopened in many countries, preschool enrollment had not recovered by the end of 2021.

“It was down by more than 10 percentage points in multiple countries. Children also faced greater food insecurity during the pandemic.’’

The report showed that among school-age children, on average, for every 30 days of school closures, students lost about 32 days of learning.

“This is because school closures and ineffective remote learning measures caused students to miss out on learning and also forget what they had already learned.’’

The statement said in low- and middle-income countries, nearly one billion children missed out on at least a full year of in-person schooling due to school closures.

It also said that more than 700 million children missed one and a half years of in-person schooling in low- and middle-income countries.

“As a result, learning poverty which was already 57 per cent before the pandemic has increased further in these countries, with an estimated 70 per cent of 10-year-olds unable to understand a basic written text.’’

The statement said COVID-19 dealt a heavy blow to youth employment.

It said 40 million who would have had a job in the absence of the pandemic did not have one at the end of 2021, worsening youth unemployment trends.

“Youth earnings contracted by 15 per cent in 2020 and 12 per cent in 2021.

“New entrants with lower education will have 13 per cent less earnings during their first decade in the labour market.

It said evidence from Brazil, Ethiopia, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and Vietnam showed that 25 per cent of all young people were neither in education, employment nor training in 2021.

The statement said the report highlighted evidence-based policy options to recover from current losses and forestall future ones.

It said in the short term, for young children, countries should support targeted campaigns for vaccinations and nutritional supplementation.

The statement said countries should also increase access to pre-primary education and expand coverage of cash transfers for vulnerable families.

It said for school-age children, governments need to keep schools open and increase instructional time, assess learning and match instruction to students’ learning levels.

“Government should also streamline the curriculum to focus on foundational learning.’’

The statement said for youths, support for adapted training, job intermediation, entrepreneurship programmes, and new workforce-oriented initiatives were crucial.

It said in the longer term, countries need to build agile, resilient, and adaptive health, education, and social protection systems that could better prepare for and respond to current and future shocks.

The statement quoted Norbert Schady, Chief Economist for Human Development, World Bank and a lead author of the report as saying:

“People under the age of 25 today, that is, those most affected by the erosion of human capital will make up more than 90 per cent of the prime-age workforce in 2050.

“Reversing the pandemic’s impact on them and investing in their future should be a top priority for governments.

“Otherwise, these cohorts will represent not just a lost generation but rather multiple lost generations.”

The statement said the World Bank Group was working closely with governments to protect and invest in people as they cope with and recover from the pandemic.

It said the bank’s pandemic response financing reached 72.8 billion dollars between April 2020 and June 2022, including 37.6 billion dollars and 35.1 billion dollars in IBRD and IDA commitments.

“During the same period, the bank’s financing in human development reached 47.5 billion dollars, supporting 300 projects in low- and middle-income countries.’’ (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Ese E. Eniola Williams