Rewriting the future for 70 million children
At the peak of COVID-19, 1.6 billion children were pushed out of school.
Everyone, everywhere has suffered. For some, the weight of the impact will diminish over time; while others – the poorest children in the world – will never recover. Children in some of the poorest countries have missed out on nearly a sixth of their expected lifetime education.
What’s worse is that many of these children will fail to meet one of the most important milestones on their education journey. Reaching the age of 10 should be a pivotal moment in a child’s life: the moment when she stops learning to read and starts reading to learn.
This make-or-break moment allows a child to go from simply reading words on a page to understanding a quiz, a health leaflet, or a fairytale. It is a crucial transition that sets millions of children up for a better life – one of continuous independent learning. It is a moment that creates the doctors, nurses, public health experts, and teachers of the future, maybe even presidents and prime ministers too.
Read our report and recommendations. We can do something about the children counting the days to their tenth birthday next year and every year after.
