United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said the COVID-19 induced school closure has created a global education emergency occasioned by the inability of a third of children to access virtual leaning.
UNICEF said about 1.5 billion children could not access learning at the peak of lockdowns intended to ameliorate the spread of coronavirus.
Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director said, “For at least 463 million children whose schools closed due to COVID-19, there was no such a thing as remote learning.
“The sheer number of children whose education was completely disrupted for months on end is a global education emergency,” she said in a statement. “The repercussions could be felt in economies and societies for decades to come.”
According to the report released on Wednesday, school children in sub-Saharan Africa were the most affected. It also revealed that the highest number of children affection by region were in South Asia, at least 147 million, according to the report.
The report based its findings on availability of home-based technology and tools needed for remote learning, such as access to television, radio and internet, and the availability of curricula delivered by the platforms.
Children in the poorest households and in rural areas were most affected.
The youngest children are also most likely to miss out on remote learning during critical years, the report said, largely due to challenges and limitations to online learning for young children and lack of assets at home.
The U.N children’s agency noted that the situation is probably worse than predicted because pressures to do chores might impede learning at homes where technology is available.
Source: CGTN