During the COVID19 pandemic, children experienced significant learning loss due to protracted school closures, averaging 224 days (about 7 and a half months).
Before the pandemic, 57 percent of children in low- and lower- middle-income countries were already experiencing learning poverty. They were reaching age 10 without achieving foundational literacy or numeracy.
These children cannot read simple sentences or complete basic mathematical tasks. They are also missing out on social-emotional learning and are being denied the chance to build digital literacy and other life skills.
The seeds of this learning crisis were sown during the first industrial revolution, when schools were designed in the image of factories. Schools were expected to apply the same inputs and the same processes across diverse groups of learners with hopes that all children would achieve the same learning outcomes.
But children are not factory widgets. They have different DNA and fingerprints, of course, but also learning needs, interests, and aspirations.
That means education needs to be personalized, not standardized.
Learn about the Zone of Proximal Development.
