More than 616 million students remain influenced by the closure of full school or partial, an UNICEF report on Tuesday said marking International Education Day.
Even as a Covid-19 pandemic approaching the two years, in the UNICEF report sharing the latest data available about the impact of pandemics about children’s learning.
“In March, we will mark two years of disturbances related to Covid-19 for global education.
Simply put, we see a scale of losses that can almost be overcome with children’s schools,” said Robert Jenkins, Head of Education UNICEF, in a statement.
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Children lose basic numeration and literacy skills.
In low and medium-income countries, learning losses for the closure of schools have remained up to 70 percent of 10-year-old children who cannot read or understand simple text, up from 53 percent pre-pandemic, the report said.
In Ethiopia, elementary school children are estimated to have learned between 30 to 40 percent of the mathematics they will learn if it is a normal school year.
In some Brazilian states, about three out of four children in class 2 are outside the track in reading, up from 1 of the 2 pre-pandemic children.
In South Africa, school children are between 75 percent and the full school year behind their place should be.
In India, 80 percent of teenagers between 14-18 years, report less learning due to increasing school closure.
Learning disadvantages have been observed even in developed countries such as Britain, US and Australia.
In addition, the closing of the school also has an impact on children’s mental health, reduces their access to regular nutritional sources, and increases the risk of their harassment.
The more evidence shows that Covid-19 has caused a high level of anxiety and depression among children and adolescents, with several studies found that girls, teenagers and those who live in rural areas are most likely to experience this problem.
Furthermore, more than 370 million children globally missed eating school during school closure, losing what for some of the only reliable daily food and nutritional sources, said the report.
While the disruption to learning must end, just reopening the school may not be enough, said Jenkins.
“Students need intensive support to restore lost education.
Schools must also go beyond the place of learning to rebuild mental health and physical children, social development, and nutrition,” he added.
Losing global education because the pandemic can hardly be overcome: UNICEF
