As schools around the world have faced closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that children are at risk of long-term learning losses and worsened life outcomes if education systems do not act to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 closures when schools reopen. RISE teams have been hard at work to investigate how we can best mitigate these detrimental effects on children and potentially build back education systems even stronger than before.

In July, the RISE Indonesia Country Research Team produced a comprehensive policy brief outlining some likely effects of the pandemic on children in Indonesia and steps for recovering learning losses as Indonesian schools reopen. The brief, Recovering Learning Losses as Schools Reopen in Indonesia: Guidance for Policymakers, provides guidelines for recovering learning losses, points that should be monitored as schools reopen, and a list of educational practices to allow all students to catch up in learning.

Some of the points set out in the brief are also crucial for education systems worldwide: for one, schools must reorient instruction to children’s actual learning levels after closures rather than adhering to pre-pandemic curricula. To this end, children should be assessed upon their return to school, and then schools should meet children where they are and focus on building foundational skills.

You can read the full policy brief on the RISE Programme in Indonesia website.

For more on education systems’ response to COVID-19, see our dedicated (and continually updated) page on RISE's COVID-19 recommendations.