Sample Press Release #12 by Kathleen Madrid del Rosario Manuel August 1 2022, Manila The World Bank has a report about the state of global learning poverty and policies to address it. Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/06/23/70-of-10-year-olds-now-in-learning-poverty-unable-to-read-and-understand-a-simple-text ------------------------------- Presenting the World Bank Report “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” The World Bank has come up with a report on how to address meeting the student’s’ learning needs with curriculum and teaching adjustments as they prepare to back to school. The Report, entitled “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update”, was prepared by the World Bank including help from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). These six agencies aim to increase learning levels after it was discovered that about 70% of 10 year olds in low to middle-income countries had learning poverty. Learning poverty is one of the indicators used by the World Bank to assess foundation skills of individuals, including youth and children, for a better future especially employment figures. Learning poverty means a child’s inability to read as well as to understand a simple story. The Report points out that it is in South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean where the largest increases of learning poverty have been determined. According to the World Bank Report the good news is there are policies in place that will address learning recovery and acceleration associated with pre-pandemic learning in traditional schools were face-to-face interaction and teaching was implemented. The World Bank presented the RAPID framework. The RAPID framework was recently implemented by UNICEF, UNESCO and World Bank. The RAPID framework is a sustainable framework used to accelerate teaching and to recover teaching losses such as decreasing learning poverty and keeping children in school. The RAPID framework stands for R is Reach every child and keep them in school, A is for Assess learning levels regularly, P is for Prioritize teaching the fundamentals, I is Increase the efficiency of instruction including through catch-up learning and D is for Develop psychosocial health and well-being. If implemented at scale, meaning a large number of schools in entire countries and regions, the RAPID framework can hasten learning recovery for more students to learn properly in preparation for their working future. The World Bank Report suggests coupling implementation of the RAPID framework with reforms for teachers and educational institutions. It is thus possible to recover learning to direct and positively shape children’s futures. At the same time, policies such as the RAPID framework can build and sustain equitable educational institutions that are better prepared to cope with student differences and needs and scenarios like COVID.