The persistent global inequality crisis has long been a critical social issue due to its substantial economic and social cost. Despite continuous international efforts to mitigate inequality, the issue remains severe. The outbreak of COVID-19 and associated lockdown measures have further exacerbated inequality in various forms, including poverty rates, gender-based labor gaps, and educational gaps. Moreover, global inequality is expected to intensify further due to multiple post-pandemic crises like inflation, climate change, and conflicts.

This study analyzes the post-pandemic inequality levels in developing countries and derives policy implications for Korea’s development cooperation to help reduce inequality, especially in the education sector. Multidimensionality of inequality requires a comprehensive approach to understand the nature of inequality and its resolutions fully. However, paradoxically, because of the vast dimensions, the complexity of inequality cannot be fully explored in a single analysis, no matter how comprehensive it might be. Hence, this study thoroughly explores a single dimension of inequality—education. Education is one of three critical components of human capital, along with inherent abilities and skills, thus crucial in mitigating and preventing inequality. Because the pandemic led to an unprecedented global disruption in education, including prolonged school closures, analyzing its effect on the education sector is even more urgent.

Chapter 2 assesses the overall impact of COVID-19 on inequality, especially in the economic, health, and education dimensions, and global efforts to address the issue. The results suggest that both across- and within-country inequalities have worsened, with low-income countries or groups experiencing bigger negative impacts. Globally, numerous discussions on inequality acknowledge the severity of the issue and the urgency to solve it but fail to propose specific strategies or solutions.

Chapter 3 summarizes the role of education in mitigating inequality based on previous literature and uses macro-level data to explore the global education levels and gaps from 2010 to 2020. In the 2010s, education levels increased globally, and intra-country educational gaps narrowed. However, the pandemic triggered a sharp decline in education levels and widened educational gaps. Notably, students from low-income countries or rural areas participated less in learning activities during the pandemic school shutdowns, exacerbating the pre-existing educational disparities.

Chapter 4 conducts an in-depth micro-level analysis of the post- pandemic education levels and gaps in Ethiopia and Cambodia. Based on the two countries’ quantitative and qualitative analyses, the study finds that both countries experienced learning loss, with vulnerable households affected more. However, there were some differences across countries due to the economic, social, and cultural differences. For instance, with weaker institutional foundations in education, Ethiopia experienced quantitative educational loss, including a drop in school registration rates and learning activities. However, Cambodia, a higher-income country with stronger foundations than Ethiopia, faced challenges due to the low quality of education, including teachers’ capabilities to hold virtual classes. Meantime, most Cambodian students returned to schools when schools reopened after the lockdown.

Based on the analysis results, the study derives implications for inclusive recovery from COVID-19. Globally, supporting vulnerable groups affected by COVID-19 and multiple crises is critical while providing various quantitative and qualitative educational opportunities and incentives to compensate for learning gaps. As for the social role of education, incentives must be provided to students and teachers to regain their motivation to educate or learn and enhance parents’ awareness of education. At the same time, education policies that can protect students, especially vulnerable ones, should be implemented to reduce educational inequality. Strengthening financial and technical capacity to implement these measures is also essential. In addition, just as the two countries and urban and rural areas within each country show different patterns of educational disconnection and learning loss, recovery plans must be tailored to address the context-specific impact of the pandemic and the consequent new educational conditions. For example, in terms of education infrastructure, in low-income countries with poor educational environments, such as Ethiopia, there is an urgent need to restore basic education to make up for the loss of basic learning, and in countries with higher levels of infrastructure, such as Cambodia, reducing the digital gap is more important than basic learning. In other words, for countries like Cambodia, expanding the digital education base, such as building ICT education infrastructure and strengthening teachers’ digital capabilities, should be prioritized.

Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the analysis results and derives implications for Korea’s international development cooperation(IDC) in education based on the characteristics of Korea’s current IDC or ODA projects. The study finds that Korea’s ODA projects in education can be summarized into three characteristics. First, most ODA projects are materialistic support such as infrastructure and equipment provisions; second, the focus is on higher and vocational education rather than primary and secondary education; and third, there is little differentiation across countries. Combining the new post-pandemic educational environment in developing countries analyzed in earlier chapters and the characteristics of Korea’s ODA projects, Korea’s challenges in IDC in education can be summarized into three tasks. First, as the educational environment differs across countries, ODA projects should be customized for each context to be more effective. For example, as mentioned earlier, low-income countries need support to strengthen basic education, and middle-income countries with higher levels of infrastructure need support to expand digital education infrastructure and strengthen digital capacity. Training parents and teachers and providing high-quality educational content is also needed. The pandemic has deteriorated not only the quantity but also the quality of education. Therefore, the institutional education base and the social role of education must be strengthened to recover qualitatively by training human resources and producing high-quality teaching materials. In particular, as teachers’ low digital literacy and technological capacity led to educational loss during the pandemic school lockdown, training teachers to strengthen their technical capabilities should be prioritized to support the digitalization of education in developing countries with relatively higher infrastructure. Since Korea’s ODA projects already focus on vocational training, expanding vocational training projects for teachers can effectively achieve such goals. Lastly, support for vulnerable children, including girls, should be expanded. Currently, most of Korea’s ODA projects aim to improve a country’s overall educational environment. If the average education level of a country increases, it can contribute to alleviating inequality. However, a more proactive way to tackle inequality is to focus on vulnerable children and resolving the within-country education gap, especially because the study finds that the pandemic hit vulnerable students harder.