PODGORICA (Montenegro), September 17 (SeeNews) – Montenegro's human capital index (HCI) rose to 63% from 59% in the period between 2010 and 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the gains made so far, the World Bank said on Thursday.
The coronavirus crisis may erase Montenegro's HCI advances, as governments throughout the world struggle to maintain health and education services in the face of restrictions to protect public health, including school closings, the World Bank said in an e-mailed statement following the issue of its HCI data update report.
"A highly skilled workforce is a prerequisite for a country's ability to tackle complex challenges like the pandemic and is essential for Montenegrins to have access to more and better jobs. We commend Montenegro for the improvement in the quality of education recognised in the report. This is a step in the right direction, but more remains to be done," Emanuel Salinas, World Bank country manager for Bosnia and Montenegro, said.
The World Bank’s HCI looks at a child's trajectory, from birth to age 18, on such critical metrics as child survival (birth to age 5); expected years of primary and secondary education adjusted for quality; child stunting; and adult survival rates.
HCI 2020, based on data up to March of this year, provides a crucial pre-pandemic baseline that can help inform health and education policies and investments for the post-pandemic recovery.