The World Development Report 2018 (WDR 2018)—LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise—is the first ever devoted entirely to education. And the timing is excellent: education has long been critical to human welfare, but it is even more so in a time of rapid economic and social change. The best way to equip children and youth for the future is to place their learning at the center. The 2018 WDR explores four main themes: 1) education’s promise; 2) the need to shine a light on learning; 3) how to make schools work for learners; and 4) how to make systems work for learning.
Main Messages
- 1. Schooling is not the same as learning.
- 2. Schooling without learning is not just a wasted opportunity, but a great injustice.
- 3. There is nothing inevitable about low learning in low- and middle-income countries.
The Three Policy Actions to Address the Crisis
- 1. Assess learning, to make it a serious goal.
- 2. Act on evidence, to make schools work for learners.
- 3. Align actors, to make the system work for learning.
