The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update

Amid the worst shock to education and learning in a century, global learning poverty is at crisis levels. This report stresses that COVID-19-related school closures and other disruptions have sharply increased learning poverty, a measure of children unable to read and understand a simple passage by age 10. 

This joint publication of the World Bank, UNICEF, FCDO, USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and in partnership with UNESCO, stresses that even before the pandemic, there was already a learning crisis. 

New data presented in the report confirms that learning poverty was very high just before the pandemic hit. Since then, COVID-19 has sharply increased learning poverty, with COVID-driven school disruptions exacerbating the severe pre-pandemic learning crisis. The new RAPID framework provides a menu of options for countries to use to recover and accelerate learning.