Pandemic could result in 25% loss in future income for children up to 5 years old

Children aged 0 to 5 years accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic a loss of cognitive deficit that could mean in the long term a 25% drop in the income they would have in adult life. This loss was calculated in a global report by the World Bank released this Thursday (16).

The document also analyzed the problems caused by the health crisis in school children aged 6 to 14 and young people aged 15 to 24 years.

A CNN , Joana Silva, economist at the World Bank and one of the authors of the report, says that children aged 0 to 5 years feel cognitive loss more because the first five years of life are essential for brain development. It is at this stage that the foundation is laid for skills such as literacy and numeracy.

“A shock at this stage leads to greater losses because human capital accumulation is a sequential and cumulative process. Children from 0 to 5 years old had significant losses at the beginning of life, which can drag on throughout their school trajectory and culminate in worse job opportunities”, he warns.

She reports that learning during the early years is the foundation for later learning, as children begin to learn about numbers, language and social relationships, in addition to developing executive functions. “Losses of human capital at this stage create an obstacle to the accumulation of human capital in later stages of its life cycle.”

The document also calculates that children in school could lose up to 10% of their future earnings due to the impacts on education caused by Covid-19.

With the closure of schools, for example, children not only stopped learning but also forgot things they had already studied, even taking remote classes.

The World Bank calculates that, among school-aged children, on average, for every 30 days that schools close, students lose 32 days of learning. These losses seen today could reduce future earnings worldwide by $21 trillion.

Joana explains that, in order to minimize the problems caused by the loss of human capital during the lives of these children, governments need to prioritize income transfers to families with young children whose income has not been recovered, in addition to promoting campaigns to update the vaccination card and nutritional supplementation and programs to encourage greater cognitive and socio-emotional stimulation in homes.

As for school-age children, Joana analyzes that simply having them go back to school will not be enough: “A child who stopped going to school in the second grade and stayed at home for a year will not be able to follow the fourth grade curriculum. when returning to school. It will be important to adapt teaching to the learning level of these students. Increasing class time and catch-up programs – such as make-up classes – for students with the most losses can also help.”