65% low, lower-middle income countries slashed education budgets after COVID-19 outbreak: World Bank report

Education budgets have been lower by 65% of low and lower-middle income countries after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic whereas solely 33% of excessive and upper-middle income countries did so, in response to a report by the World Bank.

The report, compiled in collaboration with UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, stated the present ranges of presidency spending in low and lower-middle income countries fall wanting these required to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“In order to understand the short-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education budgets, information was collected for a sample of 29 countries across all regions. The sample represents about 54% of the world’s school and university aged population. The information collected was then verified with World Bank country teams,” the report stated.

“Responding to the COVID-19 crisis requires additional spending to adapt schools for compliance with the necessary measures to control contagion and to fund programs to make up for the losses in learning students experienced while schools were closed,” it added.

The pattern consists of three low-income countries (Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Uganda); 14 lower-middle income countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Tanzania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); 10 upper-middle income nations (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Jordan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Turkey); and two high-income countries (Chile, Panama).

“The following countries have education shares below 10% and therefore are likely to have other main financing sources besides budget assigned by the central government: Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia,” the report acknowledged.

“It shouldn’t be clear that countries which have seen a decline of their education funds will be capable to cowl these prices elevated through the pandemic alongside the common will increase in funding wanted to assist rising school-age populations.

“Despite the urgent need for adequate funding to allow school systems to reopen safely, about half of the countries in the sample cut their education budgets. This scarcely bodes well for the future, when macroeconomic conditions are expected to worsen,” it stated.

On the opposite hand, households in low and lower-middle income countries are likely to contribute a better share of the entire education spending than these in upper-middle and high-income countries, the report identified.

“While data is limited, household education spending as a share of GDP has increased in low-income countries and households still contribute significantly to the costs of education. The pandemic has resulted in a large and negative income and health shock for many households,” it stated.

So far, COVID-19 has contaminated over 11.43 crore folks throughout the globe and claimed over 25.37 lakh lives.