School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic caused extreme learning losses, World Bank President Ajay Banga said on Wednesday, underlining the need to devise a mechanism to prevent such situations before the next pandemic hits.

"We have a real challenge for the generation which was undergoing schooling during the pandemic," Banga said, responding to a question by PTI.
"Developed and developing countries were learning how to deal with it when we were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been extreme learning losses due to prolonged school closures during the period...and dealing with the learning losses is not just India's problem, it is an issue across the globe," he said.