70% of 10-year-olds in developing countries in ‘learning poverty’, ‘unable to read and understand a simple text’ due to prolonged COVID school closures that were not based on science. They risk losing $21 trillion in lifetime earnings, new report says

Simon Ateba( Chief White House Correspondent )

Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.

Due to prolonged COVID-19 school closures that eventually turned out not be based on science as they were not effective in preventing the spread of the virus, 70% of 10-year-olds in mainly developing countries are now in ‘learning poverty’, ‘unable to read and understand a simple text’, according to a new report published on Thursday by the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, UK government Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They now risk losing $21 trillion in lifetime earnings.