Thursday, February 13, 2025 By Bjorn Lomborg Kids’ educational test scores are a major cause for concern across the world. Learning plummeted nearly everywhere during the Covid pandemic—but even before that, standardized test result measures in mathematics, science and reading were heading in the wrong direction. Education truly unites parents across the world, although the level of challenge differs, with American and rich world results stagnating at relatively high levels, whereas children in the world’s poorer half struggle with even reading a simple sentence or doing basic math. But after years of experience, it has become clear which policies don’t work at all—even if they have loud backers. Increasing per pupil spending sounds like a no-brainer, but it can deliver little or no learning at all if the money isn’t used wisely. India showed this when
