Realizing the Future of Learning

This report describes the World Bank’s vision for the future of learning and a strategic approach that lays out the lines of actions needed for education systems to move forward in accelerating learning improvement. This report reviews the current learning crisis, including the extent to which COVID-19 has exacerbated it, and then lays out a vision, policy priorities and some principles for education policy reform.

To guide policy advisory and operational support to countries, this report discusses policy actions that are needed to accelerate learning and that characterize the way many successful systems operate. These are presented within five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system that underpin the World Bank’s strategic education policy approach: learners, teachers, learning resources, schools, and system management. Countries can chart their own path with a political commitment to carry out investments and reforms in five pillars that ensure that:

1. Learners are prepared and motivated to learn—with a stronger emphasis on whole-child development and support to learning continuity beyond the school.
2. Teachers are effective and valued—and ready to take on an increasingly complex role of facilitators of learning at and beyond the school with use of education technology.
3. Learning resources, including curricula, are diverse and high-quality—to support good pedagogical practices and personalized learning.
4. Schools are safe and inclusive spaces—with a whole-and-beyond-the-school approach to prevent and address violence and leave no child behind.
5. Education systems are well-managed—with school leaders who spur more effective pedagogy and a competent educational bureaucracy adept at using technology, data, and evidence.

The first part describes the vision for the future of learning. The second examines the steps that countries can take today in terms of policy reforms and programs to realize and sustain this vision at scale, each charting its own path according to its own context. The third describes the principles that should be followed to ensure coherence and optimize the effects of policy reforms. Together, they address the following broad questions: 

• What are the main changes needed to strengthen the five pillars of an education system and realize our vision for the future of learning?
• What policies and programs should be prioritized and sustained over time to realize this vision?
• How can the effect of investments and policy actions be optimized to achieve learning for everyone, everywhere?”