Ahead of Education Summit, UN calls for halting learning crisis, or risk failing an entire generation.

UNITED NATIONS -- Hours before the start of the crucial 'Transforming Education Summit', the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, on Friday warned that globally, only a third of 10-year-olds were estimated to be able to read and understand a simple written story, representing a 50 percent decrease from pre-coronavirus pandemic estimates.

'Under resourced schools, underpaid and under-qualified teachers, over-crowded classrooms and archaic curricula are undermining our children's ability to reach their full potential,' Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, said in a press statement.

'The trajectory of our education systems is, by definition, the trajectory of our future,' she added. 'We need to reverse current trendlines or face the consequences of failing to educate an entire generation. Low levels of learning today mean less opportunity tomorrow.'

The much-anticipated Transforming Education Summit began at the UN Headquarters Friday, with a day of mobilization, led by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his deputy, Amina Mohammed together, with the President of the General Assembly, Csaba Korosi.

Saturday has been billed as 'solutions day', led by UN Deputy-Secretary-General Ms Mohammed, and on Monday, the UN chief will introduce his vision statement, along with world leaders, in the General Assembly Hall, as the summit comes to a close.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to address the Education Summit on Monday via video-link. He is among 90 world leaders listed to speak.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pointed out, prolonged school closures and a lack of access to quality learning exposed and exacerbated a pre-existing learning crisis, that had left millions of schoolchildren without foundational numeracy and literacy skills.

To draw attention to the education crisis and the need to transform learning worldwide, UNICEF has created the 'Learning Crisis Classroom', a model classroom that represents the scale of children failing to learn critical foundational skills.

The installation will be displayed at the visitors' entrance of UN...