Learning crisis

The learning crisis or global learning crisis is a term describing the fact that, despite a large increase in access to schooling, learning outcomes remain poor, especially in developing countries. Worldwide, millions of children who attend school do not acquire basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, and many more are far behind age-appropriate expectations in their national curricula. Proponents argue that this crisis needs to be addressed due to the importance of education in fostering children's development, social mobility, and subsequent opportunities.
Many factors have been identified as causes of the global learning crisis. These include inadequate funding, socioeconomic factors, and quality of teachers. Another contributing factor is that many education systems monitor educational quality using inadequate indicators. In many countries, governments rely on input-based proxies for quality such as budget spent on education and student enrolment numbers, rather than outcome-based measures of student learning.
Experts have argued that overcoming the global learning crisis will require systemic, well-aligned reform of national education systems that goes beyond addressing individual policy areas such as schooling access, student assessment, and teacher quality.

Background

Schooling access has expanded massively in recent decades, almost reaching the target of universal primary-school enrollment by 2030. Making education accessible to everyone has been a priority of the international community since it was articulated in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The goal of expanding basic education was also articulated in the World Declaration on Education for All, which resulted from an assembly in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990. The World Declaration on Education for All focuses on aspects such as the provision of basic education for everyone, the importance of education in improving world's prosperity, as well as incorporating local culture to promote education development.
However, in many education systems, children may progress in years of schooling without corresponding progress in learning levels. Researchers in economics and education have long argued that school enrollment expansion has a positive effect on economic growth. But recent statistical analyses and results from international student assessments have indicated that a greater school enrolment has not yet been followed by quality learning in many parts of the world.
A team of researchers from the World Bank have developed a database of internationally harmonized learning outcomes by linking regional assessments of core academic subjects in less developed countries to international achievement for developed countries. Based on their database, the rate of school enrolment reached more than 90 percent in 2010, but learning outcomes in developing countries are very low and stagnant. For example, the enrolment rate in the Middle East and North Africa region increased to 99 percent in 2010; however, the learning level from 2000 to 2015 remained nearly unchanged from the low-performance benchmark. For example, in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, 75 percent of the students in grade 3 cannot read a basic sentence such as "the name of the dog is Puppy". Furthermore, 90 percent of 10-year-olds in low-income countries are unable to read and understand simple text. Across the 95 non-OECD countries with multiple years of observation, the average score is 405, compared to the OECD average of 500. At the current pace of progress, it will take 102 years for these countries to reach the OECD average.
In the case of middle-income countries, many education systems are also failing to facilitate the learning of children who are attending school.

In South Africa, 78 percent of children do not learn to read for meaning in the first three years of school.
In India, more than half of the Grade 5 students have not mastered Grade 2 literacy. A study conducted by Das and Zajonc finds that even after nine years of education, around 30 to 40 percent of children in Rajasthan and Orissa, India fail to pass the lowest international benchmark of basic mathematical knowledge.
In Nigeria, 53 percent of 10-year-olds are unable to write nor read. According to a report by the World Bank, only 66 percent of grade 4 students in Nigerian public schools can read one out of three words and 78 percent are able to do single digit addition. The number by gender is more concerning where only 1 percent of women who completed Grade 6 can read a single sentence in their native language.
In Indonesia, despite achieving universal primary enrollment in 1988, the result of the Program for International Student Assessment results of Indonesian students remained low in 2018. A 2021 paper confirms that less than 1 in 3 students in Indonesia had the ability to answer level 2 or above questions in mathematics. Similarly, the result from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2015 also finds that 27 percent of 4th graders in Indonesia failed to meet the most basic mathematical knowledge.

The learning crisis has worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. These learning losses have been attributed to temporary school closures and the shift to remote learning.

Usage

Foundational thinking about the learning crisis was laid out in Lant Pritchett's 2013 book
The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning. The term "learning crisis" has since been used widely in the international education discourse, both by international organisations such as the World Bank and in academic research. According to the Google Books Ngram Viewer, usage of the terms "global learning crisis" and "learning crisis" has rapidly increased beginning in the 2010s

Usage of the term "learning crisis" by prominent global organizations

used the term "learning crisis" in their 2014 report, Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All. The report described the urgency for policymakers worldwide to prioritize tackling the global learning crisis as more than 250 out of 650 million children were not learning basic skills in math and reading.
In 2018, the term of "learning crisis" was again used in the World Development Report. The 2018 WDR explores several main themes: 1) education's promise; 2) the need to shine a light on learning; 3) how to make schools work for learners; and 4) how to make systems work for learning.
Although they do not explicitly use the term "learning crisis", the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals create targets for student learning in addition completion of schooling. This emphasis on learning aligns with the concept of the learning crisis, and it contrasts with the previous educational target of the Millennium Development Goals, which focused on universal primary schooling without mentioning learning outcomes. Based on the United Nations' goal of ensuring quality education, the following Sustainable Development Goal targets have been defined:

Target 4.1: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
Target 4.2: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.
Target 4.3: By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university.
Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
Target 4.5: By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations.
Target 4.6: By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults both men and women achieve literacy and numeracy.
Target 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture's contribution to sustainable development.

The term of "learning crisis" has also been used by private corporations. McKinsey & Company, for instance, have utilized this term in their 2022 report regarding the impact of COVID-19 in worsening the existing global learning crisis.

Usage of the term "learning crisis" in academic research

Apart from its use in international education and international development, the term "learning crisis" is increasingly used in academic research. For example, Sam Hickey and Naomi Hossain's 2019 edited volume, The Politics of Education in Developing Countries: From Schooling to Learning, uses the learning crisis as one of its organizing concepts.
Additionally, the International Journal of Educational Development published a special issue assessing how learning profiles—an approach for analysing the progression of children's learning over time—can be used to inform key actors in education systems on the state of the learning crisis and how to address it.
A multi-country research programme called Research on Improving Systems of Education aims to understand how education systems in developing countries can overcome the global learning crisis. This mission of eradicating the global learning crisis is pursued through generating rigorous research and working closely with governments, NGOs, and donors to connect research and policy and improve learning for all.