All children and adolescents learn in Latin America and the Caribbean
Catching up on lost learning, skills development and active participation
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Why is learning in Latin America and the Caribbean critical?
Although preschool, primary and secondary education enrollment rates in Latin America and the Caribbean have increased in recent decades, this has led to improved learning achievements.
Learning poverty in the region could undermine the future of 0–18-year-olds and the countries’ economic prospects.
- Latin America and the Caribbean will likely become the region with the largest increase in the learning poverty rate.
- This is because it had the most prolonged school closures globally, causing students to lose an average of 225 full school days.
- Moreover, in early 2022, the region had one of the highest proportions of students affected by partial closures globally.
The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update Conference edition.1
What are we doing?
We have set out to support governments in taking the necessary steps to address the current learning crisis by providing advice to:
- Undertake the necessary reforms to close the gap in educational resources and take advantage of information and communication technologies.
- Increase enrollment, especially of the most marginalized children and adolescents (with disabilities, migrants and refugees, impoverished, belonging to ethnic groups and living in rural and remote areas) with special attention to gender equality, and ensure that they remain in school.
- Promote access to and implement remedial and accelerated learning programs for critical skills for all, including in humanitarian emergencies and fragile contexts.
- Support teachers by providing them with the tools they need.
Learning loss makes it difficult for students to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their full potential and participate equally in society and the job market.
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1 World Bank, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Institute for Statistics, United Nations Children's Fund, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update Conference edition, June 23, 2022, citing: Azevedo et al., 2020. Note: Figures for 2022 are based on simulations. Regional and global figures are all population-weighted averages. This report follows the World Bank's regional ranking.