COVID-19 Learning Loss and Recovery: Panel Data Evidence from India. Working Paper 30552

We use a panel survey of [approximately]19,000 primary-school-aged children in rural Tamil Nadu to study 'learning loss' after COVID-19-induced school closures, and the pace of recovery after schools reopened. Students tested in December 2021 (18 months after school closures) displayed learning deficits of [approximately]0.7[sigma] standard deviations in math and [approximately]0.34[sigma] standard deviations in language compared to identically-aged students in the same villages in 2019. Two-thirds of this deficit was made up within 6 months after school reopening. Further, while learning loss was regressive, the recovery was progressive. A government-run after-school remediation program contributed [approximately]24% of the cohort-level recovery, and likely aided the progressive recovery. [Financial support was provided by the RISE Programme--funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Financial support was also provided by the Asociacíon Mexicana de Cultura, A.C.]