Over 400 million schoolchildren in 23 countries remain affected by school closures as the Covid-19 pandemic enters its third year, the United Nations Children’s Fund said.In its report released this week, UNICEF said that with 23 countries yet to fully open schools, many schoolchildren are also at risk of dropping out.
“This rising inequality in access to learning means that education risks becoming the greatest divider, not the greatest equalizer,” Russel said. “When the world fails to educate its children, we all suffer,” she added. UNICEF said that out-of-school children are some of the “most vulnerable and marginalized children in society” since they are the least likely to be able to read, write or do basic math.
In the countries analyzed, UNICEF said that the current pace of learning is “so slow that it would take seven years for most schoolchildren to learn foundational reading skills that should have been grasped in two years, and 11 years to learn foundational numeracy skills.” Russel said that as the pandemic enters its third year, countries cannot afford to go back to “normal.”