Organizations around the world are trying to learn more about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It makes sense as pandemic created a lot of challenges for people, companies as well as authorities. The state of the global economy is far from perfect. Companies are struggling to avoid the worst-case scenario and millions of people around the globe lost their jobs.
On Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OED) published a paper. This paper contains many interesting details. The intergovernmental economic organization warned the interruption to children’s schooling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic could have serious consequences.
According to the organization, the pandemic could mean global economic growth is 1.5% lower on average for the rest of the century. Importantly, this projected loss of gross domestic product (GDP), means that economic growth would be equivalent to a total economic loss of $15.3 trillion in the U.S.
Notably, this prediction is based on an assumption that U.S. students recorded a loss of skills of one-tenth of a standard deviation. Also, on the basis that all cohorts returned to previous levels thereafter.
The paper published by OECD estimated how students’ losing out one-third of the school year would impact the global economy in the long run. Unfortunately, millions of students around the globe especially in poor countries lack access to the internet. As a result, for many of them, it was all but impossible to attend online classes.
U.S. economy and OECD
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the loss of time in the classroom would lead to a loss of skills. Moreover, this in turn would negatively affect productivity. Consequently, the total cost of missed schooling could amount to 69% of the current GDP for the typical country.
The prediction assumed that only the current cohort of students would suffer from the pandemic. Also, it assumes that future students would resume schooling.
Importantly, the OECD said losses to economic growth could be even higher if schools were slow to return to previous levels of performance.
As mentioned above, the majority of children spent a lot of time at home. However, the period of homeschooling has the potential to create bigger problems. Teachers around the world worked hard to maintain education during this period of homeschooling. However, it was not an easy task as teachers, as well as students, had to adapt to the new reality. Moreover, some of the teachers found it quite hard to change their teaching methods.
One solution that has the potential to improve the situation is to improve the infrastructure for remote learning. This is one of the best solutions considering that it could take time to create an effective vaccine. Thus, it makes sense to invest in remote learning, especially in developing countries. The U.S. government should remember that it would be quite hard to get the global economy back on track. Notably, to achieve this goal, state and federal agencies should take the necessary steps.
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