New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman participated in a discussion on a paper titled “Learning Losses: What to do about the Heavy Cost of COVID on Children, Youth, and Future Productivity” during the Development Committee Dinner meeting of the World Bank in Washington DC. Sitharaman is on an official visit to the US till October 16In her opening remarks, the finance minister said that every participating nation agrees that an unrelenting focus on learning recovery and skill improvement is a must in the wake of Covid-19-led school closures.
Sharing her India-specific experience, Sitharaman shared two steps that India has undertaken with respect to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the loss of learning. In November 2021, India conducted the National Achievement Survey (NAS), covering 3.4 million students of grades III, V, VII, and X, to evaluate learning competencies. (Also Read: DHANTERAS 2022: Check out the QUALITY of GOLD in just a click, here’s HOW)
It showed national average performance had dropped to 9 percent as compared to NAS 2017 for comparable grades. In March 2022, India undertook a National Foundation Learning Study for grade III students. It was the world`s largest sample for one-on-one assessment and the first time ever that numeracy and comprehension benchmarks based on the Global proficiency Framework in 20 languages were used as a medium of instruction in India. (Also Read: WhatsApp will soon let you edit send messages for SELECTED users)
The Finance Minister, citing the two studies, emphasised these efforts provide not only an authentic assessment of the magnitude of the problem but also drive evidence-based planning for systemic interventions. The Finance Minister shared these examples with the World Bank so that they can be shared this experience with other countries.
The Finance Minister stated further that India`s digital platform, DIKSHA, which has been identified as one of the 12 Digital Global Goods by India, is now in the public domain. Last year, Sitharaman said India became the first country in the world to provide QR-coded textbooks to elementary school children through this platform.
In her concluding address, Sitharaman exhorted the World Bank should use its knowledge power to help countries draw up a Learning Loss Recovery Action Plan in order to avert the prospect of a lost generation, cumulative future economic losses due to lower productivity, earnings, and of heightened social unrest.