Realizing the Future of Learning: From Learning Poverty to Learning for Everyone, Everywhere

• Too many education systems are not delivering even basic skills for all children, let alone preparing them for the demanding world they will live in as adults.

• Urgent action is needed to realize a new vision for education: one in which learning happens for everyone, everywhere. 

• The COVID-19 crisis has further exposed the weaknesses of education systems around the world and underlined the urgency to act. Simulations by the World Bank show that the learning poverty rate might increase by 10 points, from 53% to 63% in low- and middle-income countries.

• This report describes the World Bank’s vision for the future of learning and a strategic approach that lays out the lines of actions needed for education systems to move forward in accelerating learning improvement.

• COVID-19 pandemic response has opened a window of opportunity for educational systems to move to a path of accelerated progress. It is now possible to bring forward to today elements that many would have thought are part of the future of learning. 

• A vision of this future should guide today’s investments and policy reforms so that countries can lay the foundations for effective, equitable, and resilient education systems.

In the future, learning should happen with joy, purpose, and rigor for everyone, everywhere

• To guide our policy advisory and operational support to countries, the report discusses policy actions that are needed to accelerate learning and that characterize the way many successful systems operate.

• These are presented within five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system that underpin the World Bank’s strategic education policy approach: learners, teachers, learning resources, schools, and system management. 

• Countries can chart their own path with a political commitment to carry out investments and reforms in five pillars that ensure that:

1. Learners are prepared and motivated to learn—with a stronger emphasis on whole-child development and support to learning continuity beyond the school.
2. Teachers are effective and valued—and ready to take on an increasingly complex role of facilitators of learning at and beyond the school with use of education technology.
3. Learning resources, including curricula, are diverse and high-quality—to support good pedagogical practices and personalized learning.
4. Schools are safe and inclusive spaces—with a whole-and-beyond-the-school approach to prevent and address violence and leave no child behind.
5. Education systems are well-managed—with school leaders who spur more effective pedagogy and a competent educational bureaucracy adept at using technology, data, and evidence.

• Investments and reforms in each of the pillars are needed today to lay the foundations for the future of learning.

• The report also discusses core principles that should guide systemwide reform efforts so that policies within each pillar offer the greatest value for money and are scalable and sustainable.