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Figure ES.1 The pandemic led to steep losses in early childhood development and early learning in very young children in Bangladesh and Brazil a. Eect of pandemic on skills, by mother's education, Bangladesh b. Language learning during school year (2019, 2020, 2021 cohorts), Brazil Cognitive Language Motor Pandemic eect (standard deviations) –1.0 –0.8 –0.5 –0.3 0 0.3 Primary or less Incomplete secondary Complete secondary 100 62.5 33 March Average test scores (standard deviations) December b.1. Average test scores, by cohort b.2. Percentage of time in in-person education, by cohort 1.5 1.0 0.5 0 –0.5 0 25 50 75 100 2019 cohort 2020 cohort 2021 cohort 2019 2020 Percent 2021 Sources: Panel a: Hamadani et al, forthcoming. Panel b: Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation 2021. Note: Panel a: Children are 20 months old. Panel b: Children are in preschool. See chapter 2 for additional figure details. Learning losses and dropouts: The heavy cost of the COVID-19 pandemic on school-age children A very large literature, spanning hundreds of studies, shows that schooling—both its quantity (as measured by years of schooling completed) and its quality (as measured by amount of learning)—is a robust predictor of labor market success. Indeed, for millions of people around the world schooling is the only pathway to a beer, more prosperous life. In March 2020, when the pandemic first hit, schools closed in 180 countries. One year later, in March 2021, schools were still partially or fully closed in 94 countries. Overall, 1.3 billion children in low- and middle- income 4 Collapse and Recovery: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do about It

• Front Cover
• Contents
• Main Messages
• Executive Summary
• The pandemic destroyed human capital at critical moments in the life cycle
• Policies to reverse human capital losses
• Building agile, resilient, and adaptive human development systems for future shocks
• A human capital recovery: What will it take?
• Notes
• References
• Figures
• Figure ES.1 The pandemic led to steep losses in early childhood development and early learning in very young children in Bangladesh and Brazil
• Figure ES.2 During the pandemic, each month of school closures led to one month of learning losses, and more so in countries with lower GDP per capita
• Figure ES.3 Youth employment fell in most countries during the pandemic
• Figure ES.4 Declines in employment of young people during the pandemic were not offset by increases inschooling or training
• Figure ES.5 What are the paths to recovery?
• Table
• Table ES.1 There are evidence-proven policies that can reverse human capital losses