The COVID-19 outbreak has caused a global education crisis. Most education systems in the world have been severely affected by education disruptions and have faced unprecedented challenges. School closures brought on by the pandemic have had devastating consequences for children’s learning and well-being. It is estimated that 147 million children missed more than half of their in-class instruction over the past two years. This generation of children could lose a combined total of $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value. School closures have affected girls, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, those living in rural areas, children with disabilities, and children from ethnic minorities more than their peers.

The proportion of young people completing upper secondary school increased from 54 percent in 2015 to 58 percent in 2020, with completion slowing down relative to progress in the preceding five-year period. It is too early to predict the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on completion. Early indications from low-income countries based on phone surveys point to a small decline in attendance upon a return to school but a larger increase in repetition, which may increase dropout rates in coming years.

Data from 73 (mostly low- and middle-income) countries for the period of 2013-2021, indicate that about 7 in 10 children 3 and 4 years of age are developmentally on track, with no significant differences by child’s sex. 

The participation rate in organized learning one year before the official primary entry age rose steadily in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, from 69 percent in 2010 to 75 percent in 2020 but with considerable variation between countries (with the rate ranging from a figure as low as 13 percent to nearly 100 percent). This progress is being threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, as schoolchildren in early childhood education and the early grades, especially from low- and middle-income countries, are the most affected by education disruption. In most countries, early education facilities and schools were partially or fully closed for more than a full school year.

Based on data for 2016-2018, the participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months among countries of sub-Saharan Africa with data is typically about 5 percent or less compared with a rate of over 40 percent in Northern American and many European countries.

Insufficient skills are often mentioned as an impediment to effective information and communications technology use. Based on data for 2017-2020, in only 10 percent of countries could more than 70 percent of individuals carry out one of the activities that compose basic skills in the last three months such as sending an email with an attachment. In only 15 percent of countries, more than 40 percent of people have standard skills such as creating an electronic presentation using presentation software.

Despite improvements, disparities in educational participation and outcomes are persistent. Gender inequalities remain for many indicators. For example, most countries with data have not achieved gender parity in the proportion of children meeting minimum learning proficiency standards in reading, and in the lower secondary completion rate. For the lower secondary completion rate, only one-sixth of countries with data had parity between rural and urban areas and almost no countries achieved parity between children of the richest households and children of the poorest.

Basic school infrastructure is far from universal. In 2020, approximately one-quarter of primary schools globally did not have access to basic services such as electricity, drinking water, and basic sanitation facilities. Figures are substantially lower for other facilities such as information and communications technology and disability-adapted infrastructure, with about 50 percent of primary schools having such access. Shares among least developed countries tend to be substantially lower, ranging from approximately one-half to two-thirds of the global average. During the global pandemic, schools in comparatively disadvantaged areas were less equipped to keep children and staff safe. 

In 2020, there were about 12 million pre-primary school teachers, 33 million primary school teachers, and 38 million secondary school teachers working in classrooms around the world, and 83 percent of primary and secondary school teachers were trained.