Will School kids be the biggest victims of Corona?

According to UNESCO, there are 185 countries where schools have been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic which calculates to about 9 out 10 children affected worldwide.

The bulk of these students are enrolled in primary and secondary schools, but there are also millions of students affected at the pre-primary and tertiary education levels. Follow Spotlife Asia for the latest updates.

There have been crisis around the world which have disrupted education due to natural disasters, armed conflict, or occasionally epidemics. In the Middle East, at least 2.8 million Syrian children have been out of school and 5 million children were out of school in the Ebola epidemic that spread across West Africa starting in 2013.

When compared to other school closures during global crises such as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic where 40 U.S. cities closed schools, and World War II where in the UK one million children were out of school the level of disruption caused by the Corona Virus may have a deeper impact.

School closures impact not only students, teachers, and families, but have far-reaching economic and societal consequences as well. Many students rely on free or discounted meals provided at schools for food and healthy nutrition.

To put those numbers in perspective, before coronavirus struck, all the conflicts, natural disasters, poverty and discrimination across the globe were keeping 258 million children and youth out of primary and secondary school. Add in the pandemic and the number whose education is currently being disrupted is now well over one billion.

“The global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

When schools close, children and youth are deprived of opportunities for growth and development. Under-privileged learners with fewer educational opportunities beyond school are the hardest hit. It is a challenge to ensure children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after closures. Dropout rates rise and especially affect girls. Over 111 million of these girls are living in the world’s least developed countries where getting an education is already a struggle. These are contexts of extreme poverty, economic vulnerability and crisis where gender disparities in education are highest.

While school closures seem to present a logical solution to enforcing social distancing within communities, prolonged closures tend to have a disproportionately negative impact on the most vulnerable students.  They have fewer opportunities for learning at home, and their time out of school may present economic burdens for parents who may face challenges finding prolonged childcare, or even adequate food in the absence of school meals.

From one day to the next, teachers around the world have found themselves managing virtual classrooms, communicating with their students over social media platforms and learning by doing as they provide education from a distance to over 1.5 billion students affected by school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Turning teaching materials into digital format at short notice has been a challenge as few teachers have strong digital skills. 

In such unprecedented and uncertain times, it is normal for people to experience higher levels of stress and anxiety, teachers included. Teachers need socio-emotional support to face the extra pressure being put on them to deliver learning in a time of crisis as well as support their students’ emotional needs