[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1500 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1500
To direct the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development to submit to Congress a report on the impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic on global basic education programs.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 2, 2021
Ms. Houlahan (for herself, Mr. Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Quigley) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development to submit to Congress a report on the impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic on global basic education programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Global Learning Loss Assessment Act
of 2021''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Before the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (commonly referred
to as ``COVID-19'') pandemic began, 258,000,000 children were
out of school, including 130,000,000 girls.
(2) Students already at a disadvantage before COVID-19 will
experience greater learning loss, thereby worsening inequity
and inequality.
(3) Approximately 90 percent of the world's student
population--over 1,600,000,000 children and youth--have had
their education disrupted by school closure due to COVID-19.
(4) School closures lead to interrupted learning, poor
nutrition, gaps in childcare, increased dropout rates, exposure
to violence, and social isolation.
(5) Up to 24,000,000 children are at risk of dropping out
of school permanently due to rising levels of child poverty
associated with the pandemic.
(6) School closure and remote learning is especially
burdensome on girls, who are frequently expected to shoulder
more household chores and responsibilities and are more
vulnerable to gender-based violence.
(7) During the Ebola epidemic, nationwide school closures
in Sierra Leone in 2014 led to increased instances of sexual-
and gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy, school dropout,
and child labor for girls.
(8) More than 60 percent of national distance learning
alternatives rely exclusively on online platforms but two-
thirds of the world's school aged children, or 1,300,000,000
children aged 3-17, do not have internet connection in their
homes, and schools and local learning centers also frequently
have inadequate internet connectivity. Eighty percent of
students in sub-Saharan Africa lack such access, with an even
higher rate for girls.
(9) Children and youth with disabilities are particularly
vulnerable to the health, education, and socioeconomic
consequences of the pandemic. As a further challenge, distance
learning tools are not always accessible to learners with
disabilities or those with complex learning needs, especially
in poorer and rural households.
(10) Before the COVID-19 pandemic, refugee children were
twice as likely to be out of school as other youth, and school
closures and a lack of access to distance learning tools
threaten to make the education gap among refugee children even
more severe.
(11) The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
could lead to an education financing gap of $77,000,000,000 in
low- and middle-income countries over the next two years.
(12) The economic cost of school closures could be up to
$1,337 per student, which on a global scale equates to
approximately $10,000,000,000,000 in lost economic output over
the coming generation.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States that United States-funded
basic education programs operating in foreign countries should--
(1) provide inclusive learning opportunities for students
and teachers, especially for the most marginalized, including
girls, children with disabilities, and previously out of school
children;
(2) build local capacity and help countries strengthen
their education systems, including opportunities for early
childhood development;
(3) improve the availability, delivery, and quality of
education services from early childhood through secondary
education;
(4) improve equity and safety in education services; and
(5) support the return of children to school who have
experienced interruptions in their education due to the COVID-
19 pandemic and work to enroll previously out-of-school
children and youth, particularly the most marginalized.
SEC. 4. REPORT.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the United States Agency
for International Development, acting through the Senior Coordinator
for International Basic Education Assistance and in consultation with
the Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment,
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Agency's basic education
programs.
(b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required under subsection
(a) shall include, at a minimum, the following elements:
(1) An assessment of the magnitude of learning loss that
will result from protracted school closures, including the
specific effects of school and learning space closures on
marginalized children and youth, including girls, minority
populations, displaced children, and those with disabilities.
(2) Descriptions of the effectiveness, cost, accessibility,
and reach of the most commonly used forms of distance learning
in low resource contexts.
(3) An overview of Agency programs being carried out to
continue learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, including
existing data on funding and programmatic focus disaggregated
by gender, country, education level, and disability.
(4) Identification and description of any gaps in, or
barriers to, reaching and educating marginalized populations,
such as girls, children with disabilities, displaced children,
or other children adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic
with distance learning interventions.
(5) A description of the Agency's plan and needed tools and
resources to support continued distance learning interventions,
safe school reopening, assessments of student learning levels,
remedial and accelerated learning, reenrollment campaigns for
out-of-school children and youth, and education system
strengthening and resilience building efforts.
(6) An analysis of the efforts of other actors in global
basic education policy and programming to provide education
during COVID-19, including partner organizations, donors, and
bilateral and multilateral organizations, and the role of the
Agency in those efforts.
(7) Opportunities to partner and support efforts to expand
access to digital infrastructure, internet connectivity, and
learning resources in areas that lack access to digital and
remote learning infrastructure and resources, including rural
and remote communities.
(c) Public Availability.--The report required by subsection (a)
shall be made available to the public.
(d) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section,
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
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