UNESCO estimates the decline in education in El Salvador

This situation is due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, in the Salvadoran case, kept school-going children, adolescents and young adults away from in-person classes from March 2020 to 2021 in hybrid mode.

In general, the Commission explained in its report that this situation has affected all countries in the Latin American region, as its consequences are not yet fully known, which may take several years to appear.

The document “The Urgent Need for Educational Recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean” explains that between the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, Latin America saw school closures for 62 weeks, the longest period compared to the rest of the regions. The world, second only to South and West Asia.

“All educational levels are witnessing a decline in their attendance rates in 2020, with varying degrees of severity. He said the deepest decline was seen in pre-primary education, where the decline reached seven points.

At the primary, middle and upper secondary levels, this decrease is about two percentage points. The study added that for the category from zero to two years, the decrease is close to one percentage point.

According to UNESCO, dropping out of schools due to the pandemic during 2020-2022 means primary and secondary education, abandoning the first level of reading in school and complete separation from the educational system for those who previously enrolled.

When forecasting this decline in school enrollment in countries in the Latin American region, the organization indicated that this represents 2.4 million boys, girls and adolescents who have dropped out or postponed entering school.

UNESCO takes as its basis the results of standardized tests such as PISA 2022, the results of which showed that 68 percent of students in El Salvador have low academic performance in the three subjects they assess: mathematics, science and reading.

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