Out-of-school children and adolescents
A critical situation that has deteriorated because of the pandemic
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Our Challenges
In the past decades, Latin American and Caribbean countries experienced significant increases in their pre-primary, primary and secondary education enrollment rates. However, there are significant gaps in access to and completion of education, which were present even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
These disparities are critical in lower secondary education and even more at the upper secondary level1.
The effects of the pandemic on secondary education
On the one hand, COVID-19-related school closures have resulted in learning losses and, as students fall behind in the curriculum, have increased the risk that many will become disengaged and ultimately drop out of school.
Moreover, the pandemic has worsened families’ economic conditions, which will primarily affect students from the most vulnerable populations, as they are forced to work to provide an income for their families or to take care of their younger siblings or other relatives.
what do we do?
We focus our efforts on providing technical assistance to countries to help them:
- Strengthen their education systems to identify students who have dropped out and reengage them in school.
- Strengthen the capacities of teachers and school administrators to implement retention strategies for students at risk of dropping out and actively search for dropouts.
- Offer alternative education programs that recognize, validate, and accredit children’s and adolescents’ non-formal education.
- Develop and implement strategies to address learning losses through remedial and acceleration programs that consider the particular needs of students who have dropped out or are at risk of doing so.