, says: “The pandemic has shown us who the most essential workers are: health workers, teachers and education workers. Long-term school closures may have a severe impact on child health, wellbeing and educational progress.
“A range of physical, emotional and social issues are addressed at school. We have left a billion children – many already disadvantaged – stranded. We know how essential teachers are to society, the future, economies and our ability to deal with the next pandemic. When vaccines come out, we must protect teachers as part of the frontline, but they are being infected in their communities, not their schools.
“A large number of school children are dropping out and the fear is that 11 million children across the world may not come back to school if we don’t act now. Countries that allocated money to bail out economics and markets are not fulfilling their promises . . . the world’s most marginalised 20 per cent should get 20 per cent of the Covid response fund.”of the WhyNot Lab is an expert on the future of work, politics in technology and ethics in artificial intelligence.