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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Karen McVeigh

UN data reveals ‘nearly insurmountable’ scale of lost schooling due to Covid

Children walk to school in Cape Town, South Africa
Children walk to school in Cape Town, South Africa. Schoolchildren in the country are between 75% and a whole school year behind where they should be. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy

The scale of the number of children who have lost out on their schooling during the pandemic is “nearly insurmountable”, according to UN data.

Up to 70% of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries cannot read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-Covid, the research suggested.

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