Tamanna Khan has been struggling to keep up with her classes since India’s schools reopened this spring, nearly two years after they were shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.

The 11-year-old’s family has been hit hard by the economic impact of the illness. When his father, who worked as a tailor in Mumbai, lost his income, he and his wife were forced to leave their slum dwellings to return to their home village, a few hours’ drive away. They left her daughter with her aunt, where she struggled to continue her online learning using only her mobile phone.

“Studying online was very difficult and tedious, and the connection was poor. “It was very hard without my parents.”

The pandemic has left millions of children around the world who, like Khan, living in poverty, face educational setbacks and emotional distress. Now they face new pressures as rising inflation and food insecurity threaten family livelihoods, school funding and their own futures.

Parents, teachers and policy makers are concerned about how they can help young people face multiple challenges. These issues will be discussed by governments at the UN’s Transformation Education Summit in New York on Monday, which is expected to call for significant funding to tackle the crisis.

“Because of the pandemic, there is a huge learning gap,” said Divya Dhangar, who works on Teach for India programs in 34 Mumbai schools, including Khan’s. “The children were so used to being at home that they didn’t understand the importance of studying.”

Dhangar estimates that a third of her children have fallen behind their normal level of achievement, and some have since dropped out of education altogether.

“Learning poverty,” defined as children unable to understand simple sentences by age 10, has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries since the start of the pandemic, according to World Bank estimates. . 70% of her 10-year-olds in these countries say they cannot understand simple text now, compared to 57% of her in 2019.

Without government restructuring to find new, more efficiently targeted funding to address rising inequalities caused by Covid-19, the lifelong impact of children educated during the pandemic Global losses in revenue are projected to total $21 trillion.

UNESCO’s assistant director-general of education, Stefania Giannini, warned at a summit preparatory meeting in June that an “education crisis” was looming, adding: “Without a drastic change in priorities, there will be no turning back.” rice field.

There is a common concern over government fiscal pressures on schools in poorer countries caused by the economic slowdown during the pandemic, rising debt and interest payments, and the prospect of continued inflation. Two-fifths of low- and lower-middle-income countries will cut spending on education by an average of 13.5% from 2020, according to a World Bank survey of finance ministries.

This has brought new attention to the need to ensure more efficient spending. The World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and Summit donors will focus more on “basic learning”, especially in primary education, to develop solid literacy and numeracy skills alongside support for emotional well-being. It claims to improve student achievement by providing it as an essential building block for subsequent learning. progress in education.

But some are skeptical of the UN meeting, given the lack of signs of new funding or policy consensus. “Expectations are low,” the think tank Center for Global Development wrote in preparation for the summit. “No one has proposed a binding international agreement on education standards, and foreign donors show little sign of embarking on major new financial commitments.”

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The think tank argues the summit’s agenda is too broad, including elements such as education focused on climate change awareness. It calls for more attention to many more policies, such as tackling the continuing dangers of lead poisoning to the development of children in the country.

Since Russia’s war against Ukraine has raised new concerns about food shortages, school feeding programs have become of particular interest in poor as well as wealthy countries. It’s about helping families get their children into school and helping them grow healthily through better nutrition.

“School lunches are a good investment. “It’s really shocking to see that with soaring food costs, parents can’t afford to feed their children and how it’s affecting them.”

Laura Savage, director of the International Education Funders Group, a group of philanthropists trying to coordinate aid, said Monday’s education summit will embody practical steps to help the world’s poorest children. By doing so, he said, he was not satisfied with just highlighting his concerns about the global crisis.

“I believe that the progress in education is not so much about understanding what works, but how we provide support,” she said.