TIRANA, June 9 – The Western Balkans may experience a significant loss in learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. In one of its latest reports, the World Bank foresees a percentage increase of students in the region that score below basic proficiency in reading from 53 percent to 61 percent.
The report notes that over over 78 percent of 15-year-olds in Kosovo, and 50 percent in Albania, North Macedonia, and Montenegro are functionally illiterate (performing below basic proficiency). Even in Serbia, which teh WB points out as the top performer in the Western Balkans, 38 percent of students are functionally illiterate.
“The current school closures are expected to result in considerable learning loss. Not attending school has two impacts: students do not learn anything new, and they forget what they had already learned,” the report states
According to the report, the current school closures and resulting learning loss will take months or years to recover from, which will necessitate immediate policy responses to mitigate the impact, especially for those who suffered the most during school closures. Failure to do so will likely undermine human capital in the medium term and diminish economic opportunities in the long term.
In Albania, schools were shut down in early March as a result of the pandemic outbreak in the country, leaving students to attend online lectures for over three months. However, World Vision earlier reported that in terms of online school, one in 10 children could not attend classes online, nor could five in 10 children with disabilities.
