In 2020, as the pandemic interrupted education for 1.6 billion children, the world began to sound the alarm: how would this global education disruption affect the world’s most vulnerable children and further burden already struggling education systems in our countries?

Three years later, new data is confirming some of our worst fears: Even children who are back in school aren’t learning. The ratio of 10-year-old children who are unable to read and understand a simple text has risen to an alarming 70%, up from 50% pre-pandemic.

We are once again at a vital crossroads as learning losses surge with conflict, global economic upheaval and climate change, pushing the education crisis to the brink. But we have a different perspective than we did in 2019.

In our own countries of Haiti and Sierra Leone, we saw educators learn new methods and expand on old methods of teaching, like using radio. We witnessed low- and high-tech innovations, like SMS-based education solutions, reach the children who needed it most.

Meeting the urgency of today’s learning crisis and coping with the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on education systems requires unprecedented collective action to deliver transformative change at scale and unlock learning for millions of children.

We have no doubt that an educated population will be our most valuable resource as our countries confront current and future challenges, and we are encouraged by the global momentum to prioritize education as the key to unlocking all other sustainable development goals.

We welcome the efforts by the UN Secretary-General to mobilize action and solutions to radically change education systems at their core at the upcoming Transforming Education Summit in September.

The time is now

Every day, every one of us can see that the world is changing at a pace never seen before: because of new technology, climate change, economic and health crises, there is more uncertainty and insecurity, and many, especially young people, may feel like there is no hope.

Because strong country leadership is the key to transformation, we need partners to align their efforts behind our national priorities and we need this spirit of true partnership to cross national borders, and the public and private sectors.

At the Transforming Education Pre-Summit in Paris, we put to paper our commitments as Ministers of Education from more than 80 partner countries to ensuring a quality education for the 650 million learners that live in GPE partner countries.

With our colleagues, we also identified key asks of the international community that we think will spark lasting change in lower-income countries and beyond.

In our increasingly unpredictable world, education cannot be forgotten. It is the best investment we can make in the generations that will build the future we all want.

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Read the full ministerial communiqué from the Pre-Transforming Education Summit.