Whereas the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed January 24 as the International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development; Whereas the theme of the fifth International Day of Education is to invest in people, prioritize education ; Whereas access to quality education reduces poverty, advances economic prosperity, improves peace and security, and strengthens public health, and poverty is one of the most striking factors that impedes the attainment of foundational learning skills, particularly with regard to reading; Whereas foundational learning is an essential first step to enable children and young people to access more advanced learning and skills, and children who cannot read and understand a simple text will struggle to learn anything else in school and they are more likely to repeat a grade and drop out of school; Whereas at its peak, COVID–19-related school closures affected more than 94 percent of the world’s students, representing 1,580,000,000 children and youth, from preprimary to higher education, in 200 countries; Whereas an estimated 147,000,000 children have missed more than half of their in-class instruction over the past 2 years due to school closures caused by the COVID–19 pandemic; Whereas this generation of children, affected by disruptions to education because of the pandemic, could lose a combined total of $17,000,000,000,000 in lifetime earnings; Whereas, before COVID–19, primary enrollment for girls had increased by 65 percent; now an estimated 129 million girls worldwide remain out of school and face multiple barriers to education, and investments in addressing the challenges that are keeping girls out of school are critical investments in global prosperity; Whereas approximately 222,000,000 school-aged children are affected by crises, of which 78,200,000 are out of school and 119,600,000 are not achieving minimum competencies in mathematics and reading despite attending school