According to UNICEF the deep pre-COVID learning crisis has been made even more severe by the pandemic. One of the most intuitive indicators of the learning crisis is the learning poverty rate, which measures the share of children who cannot read a simple text with comprehension by age 10. Widespread learning poverty predated the pandemic: this report shows that in 2019, before the pandemic hit, the learning poverty rate was already estimated at 57 percent in low- and middle-income countries, and that in Sub-Saharan Africa it was 86 percent. Moreover, global progress against learning poverty had already stalled: between 2015 and 2019, there was no reduction in global learning poverty. Reading, together with writing, numeracy, and socioemotional skills, is a building block for all the other education outcomes that societies care about.  Concerted action against learning poverty is urgently needed now, with every society prioritizing the welfare of today’s children and youth. To safeguard the future, it is essential to make this a turning point. We need to ensure a sharp acceleration of learning, starting in the short term with a robust recovery from the COVID shock. 

At Burden Bearers we help put those who are struggling with school due to poverty to acquire an education and skills training to help stop poverty in their future.