LOCKDOWN CAUSES MASSIVE “LEARNING POVERTY”

As the Trends Journal has reported in a number of issues, the unprecedented closing down of the world economy to deal with the virus has had a devastating effect on child education. 
Now, last Wednesday, a press release published by the educational division of the World Bank reveals how the lockdowns’ oppressive effect on children worldwide is clearly worse than the coronavirus itself. 
The press release headline reads: “Pandemic Threatens to Push 72 Million More Children into Learning Poverty.”
“Learning Poverty” is the term used to describe any child not in school and not able to read and understand “an age-appropriate text by age 10.”
As the press release states, 
“Of 720 million primary school age children, 382 million are learning poor, either out of school or below the minimum proficiency level in reading. COVID-19 could boost that number by an additional 72 million to 454 million… it puts this generation of students at risk of losing about $10 trillion in future life-time earnings, an amount equivalent to almost 10 percent of global GDP.”
Among the negative impact of locking down economies on a global scale, the press release cites two massive “shocks”:
“School closures have left most students on the planet out of school – 1.6 billion students at the peak in April 2020, and still almost 700 million students today.” 
“The negative impact of the unprecedented global economic contraction on family incomes has increased the risk of school dropouts. Marginalized groups are likely to fall further behind. Girls are facing increased risk of adolescent pregnancy and early marriage during the pandemic. And children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, refugees, and displaced populations are less likely to access suitable remote learning materials and to return to school post-crisis.”
The World Bank financial commitment to address “Learning Poverty” will rise to $6.3 billion this year. So far it can only reach out and help about 1/3 of the students worldwide suffering the consequences of the global lockdowns.
TREND FORECAST: Beyond the negative learning implications, children are being deprived of basic human experiences: no touching, no hugging, no singing, no dancing, no sport, no marching bands… unless they are “socially distanced.”
The constant fear of living freely, being ingrained now in children and others by “local health authorities” and their Lords & Masters, will deeply scar them for life. 
However, there will be a push back to the “Great Reset,” as detailed in one of our “Top 10 Trends for 2021: Youth Rebellion.”
As Gerald Celente says, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.”  And “lose it” they will, as they sink deeper into poverty, are unable to afford college educations, and, even if they got one, the job offers and salaries would be far below middle-class standard.
TREND FORECAST: For both better and for worse, Interactive U, online learning, is the new education system of the 21st century that will replace the Industrial Age Prussian model imposed on society in the late 1800s. 
In Trends 2000 (Warner Books, 1997), Trends Research Institute founder Gerald Celente laid the foundation for a powerful trend line for Interactive-U, which would fortify over a period of decades. He had forecast that “Interactive, online learning will revolutionize education.” 
Moreover, Celente forecast that “the growth of the home education and Interactive-U trend will accelerate rapidly once tele-videophony or other comparable multimedia-interface technologies become available and affordable.”
Trends are born, they grow, mature, reach old age and die. Interactive U has been prematurely born… pushed out by COVID. 
Thus, the development of the new education system will continue to evolve and advance at much higher levels than the current one being forced on students.
The process of integrating VR-ED and Interactive-U learning into aspects of traditional education is a 21st century megatrend that governments, politicians, and business leaders will advocate…  and provide broad ranges of profitability for OnTrendpreneurs® who seize the opportunities.
Among the leaders in the virtual field of education are India’s models which, for several years, provided virtual education from kindergarten through doctoral studies.