Geographic and gender disparities in global education achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic

School closures induced by the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively impacted on 1.7 billion children, resulting in losses of learning time and a decline of learning scores. However, the learning losses of students exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic at the country level have been quantitatively unaddressed. Here we model the global learning losses of students due to the COVID-19 in 2020. Our results reveal a global average Harmonized Test Scores (HTS) loss of 2.26 points. Learning continuity measures reduce the global average HTS loss by 1.64 points. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have high HTS losses (5.82 and 2.94 points), while Europe & Central Asia and North America have low HTS losses (0.85 and 0.93 points). Compared with South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, North America and Europe & Central Asia implement more effective learning continuity measures. HTS losses in low-income and lower-middle-income countries are higher (3.35 and 3.13 points) than those in high-income and upper-middle-income countries (0.99 and 2.31 points). Learning losses of global female students are higher than their male counterparts, and there is significant heterogeneity across national regions. Our results reveal both global learning losses and gender inequality in learning scores due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Global disparities highlight the importance of the need to mitigate education inequality.