COVID-19 as an Opportunity to Build Resilient Education Systems : Drawing Lessons from Five Countries in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, education systems had to redeploy inputs typically used in schools to remote education. This significantly reduced average student learning, with disadvantaged students experiencing a disproportionately large decline. Not closing these learning losses will have long-lasting effects on productivity and economic growth and dampen social mobility. In the five Eastern European countries analyzed in this paper, not acquiring sufficient learning is not a challenge that began with the pandemic. Perhaps the pandemic and the attention it is bringing to students' learning loss will create the political conditions to implement long-awaited education reforms to reduce the learning gaps and create better conditions for disadvantaged students, the core element of resilient education systems. This paper shows that using data to guide policy decisions, standardized tests as a diagnostic tool, and remediation policies should become permanent features of education systems. The pandemic pushed forward the use of technology in education. Using technology through online tutoring or Computer Assisted Learning can, when designed appropriately, improve students' academic performance, socio-emotional skills, and psychological well-being