The Learning Impact of COVID-19 in Colombia - K-Developedia

The Learning Impact of COVID-19 in Colombia
 Gabriel Demombynes
 World
Los costosBank
           y las respuestas ante el impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19
 Program
en el sector Leader
             educativofor
                       deHuman      Development,
                          América Latina               Colombia and Venezuela
                                          y el Caribe (ALC)                     May 2021

Outline
│ 1. Pre-pandemic learning crisis
│ 2. Impact of COVID-19: School closures
│ 3. Impact of COVID-19: Learning loss
│ 4. Limited public concern about
  Learning loss
│ 5. Planned World Bank education
  project in Colombia
│ 6. Potential evaluation of Colombia
  tutoring program

                                           2

Learning Crisis in Latin America Before the Pandemic
                                           55% Learning Poor
                                                                                                                                                 79%

                                                                                                                68%         70%       70%
                                                                                                       65%

                                                                                     54%     55%
                                                      50%       50%        52%
                                            49%
                       42%        44%
            41%

  31%

  Chile   Costa Rica Trinidad &   Mexico   Colombia   Brazil   Ecuador   Argentina   Peru   Average   Panama   Paraguay   Guatemala Honduras   Dominican
                      Tobago                                                                                                                    Republic

Source: World Bank (2021) Acting now to protect the human capital of our children: The costs of and response to the COVID-
                                                                                                          3
19 pandemic on the education sector in Latin America and the Caribbean

Impact of COVID-19:
  School Closures

Impact of COVID-19: School Closures
    Almost all schools in Latin America closed: 170 million students
    Latin America had longest school closures in world: average 159 days in 2020
                              Fraction of Students in Colombia
                             Attending School in Person (Hybrid)

 Public schools                  11%

Private schools                                     29%

Source: Observatorio Gestion Educativa data as of May 24, 2021
                                                                               5

Learning Crisis in Latin America Before the Pandemic
                                           55% Learning Poor
                                                                                                                                                 79%

                                                                                                                68%         70%       70%
                                                                                                       65%

                                                                                     54%     55%
                                                      50%       50%        52%
                                            49%
                       42%        44%
            41%

  31%

  Chile   Costa Rica Trinidad &   Mexico   Colombia   Brazil   Ecuador   Argentina   Peru   Average   Panama   Paraguay   Guatemala Honduras   Dominican
                      Tobago                                                                                                                    Republic

Source: World Bank (2021) Acting now to protect the human capital of our children: The costs of and response to the COVID-
                                                                                                          6
19 pandemic on the education sector in Latin America and the Caribbean

Learning Crisis in Latin America After the Pandemic
                                       71% Learning Poor
                                                                                                                                                90%
                                                                                                                             86%
                                                                                                       83%       83%                  83%
                                                                                                                                                 79%

                                                                 69%                  70%     71%                            70%       70%
                                             66%                           68%                                    68%
                                   63%                 64%                                              65%
             60%        59%
                                                                                      54%     55%
                                                                            52%
  49%                                         49%      50%       50%
                                    44%
             41%         42%

   31%

   Chile   Costa Rica Trinidad &   Mexico   Colombia   Brazil   Ecuador   Argentina   Peru   Average   Panama   Paraguay   Guatemala Honduras Dominican
                       Tobago                                                                                                                  Republic

Source: World Bank (2021) Acting now to protect the human capital of our children: The costs of and response to the COVID-
                                                                                                          7
19 pandemic on the education sector in Latin America and the Caribbean

Why learning losses with distance learning?
 1. LIMITED PARTICIPATION      2. LIMITED MONITORING   3. LIMITED EFFECTIVENESS OF DISTANCE
                                                                LEARNING PLATFORMS

 87% of students in          Many households do                 Even in best
 poorest quintile in        not have an adult with       circumstances, distance
Colombia do not have         secondary education              learning cannot
   internet access          who can assist students         replicate in-person
                                                                  learning
                                                                           8

Surveys of
parents and
media analysis
shows low level
of concern for
learning loss in
Latin America

Limited Public Concern about Learning Loss
    Size of shapes is proportional to relative frequency of mention of terms by country/region

Source: Acevedo and Demombynes (2021) based on Mediacloud data
                                                                                10

Why not more concern for public school closures?

     Parents of affected children think that distance learning has been effective?
     Parents of affected children recognize have low expectations for learning?
     Children of policymakers and elite attend private schools with effective distance learning
                                          Fraction of Students Attending
                               Private School by Socioeconomic Decile in Colombia
                                                                                                 70%

                                                                                           43%
                                                                                     28%
                                                                            23%
                                                                  18%
                                            8%          10%
                 2%       3%          3%

                  1        2          3      4           5          6            7    8     9    10
                                                 Decile of Socioeconomic Index

 Source: Analysis of 2018 PISA data
                                                                                                      11

World Bank Education Project in Preparation

 Program to Support Response to COVID-19 in Colombia Education
 Objective: boost learning and socioemotional development as well
  as reduce dropout.
 Components
   1) provide support to teachers and expand tutoring programs,
   2) integrate support for multiple programs to local administrative
   units, and
   3) improve evaluation mechanisms

                                                          12

Tutoring is Effective

Source: Scientific American and NBER                      13

Planned Evaluation of Tutoring Program in
          Buenaventura, Colombia
 Buenaventura is the poorest major city in Colombia
 Program
  Provision of tutor for group of students behind in reading and mathematics
  Provision of material to student via WhatsApp
  Support from tutor via telephone
  Adapted from pilot program in Cali, Colombia

 Evaluation
  Randomized control trial
  Developed with academic at Vanderbilt University in US
  Seeking funding and academic research partners
  Detailed proposal available
                                                                           14

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