Publication: COVID-19 School Closures, Learning Losses and Intergenerational Mobility
Date
2023-03-28
ISSN
Published
2023-03-28
Author(s)
Azevedo, João Pedro
Cojocaru, Alexandru
Talledo, Veronica Montalva
Narayan, Ambar
Abstract
The paper presents a first global
investigation of the longer-term inequality implications of
COVID-19 by examining the effect of school closures on the
ability of children from different countries and backgrounds
to engage in continued learning throughout the pandemic, and
their implications for intergenerational mobility in
education. The analysis builds on the data from the Global
Database of Intergenerational Mobility, country-specific
results of the learning loss simulation model using weekly
school closure information from February 2020 to February
2022, and high-frequency phone survey data collected by the
World Bank during the pandemic to assess the incidence and
quality of continued learning during periods of school
closures across children from different backgrounds. Based
on this information, the paper simulates counterfactual
levels of educational attainment and corresponding absolute
and relative intergenerational educational mobility measures
with and without COVID-19 impacts, to arrive at estimates of
COVID-19 impacts. The simulations suggest that the extensive
school closures and associated learning losses are likely to
have a significant impact on both absolute and relative
intergenerational educational mobility in the absence of
remedial measures. In upper-middle-income countries, the
share of children with more years of education than their
parents (absolute mobility) could decline by 8 percentage
points, with the largest impacts observed in the Latin
America region. Furthermore, unequal access to continued
learning during school closures across children from
households of different socioeconomic backgrounds (proxied
by parental education levels) leads to a significant decline
in relative educational mobility.
Citation
“Azevedo, João Pedro; Cojocaru, Alexandru; Talledo, Veronica Montalva; Narayan, Ambar. 2023. COVID-19 School Closures, Learning Losses and Intergenerational Mobility. Policy Research Working Papers; 10381. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39607 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”