And since 23 countries have yet to fully reopen schools, many children are at risk of dropping out.
“When children are unable to interact directly with their teachers and peers, their learning suffers. UNICEF CEO Catherine Russell. “When children are unable to interact with teachers and peers, their learning loss can become permanent.
“This increasing inequality in access to learning, which means education risks becoming the biggest separating factor, not the biggest balancing factor. When the world fails to educate its children, we all suffer.”
2 trillion hours, gone
The report is named, Are children really learning?highlight national education data on impact COVID-19 School closures for children with up-to-date analysis of pre-pandemic learning.
Research indicates that 147 million children have missed more than half of their classroom instruction in the past two years – the equivalent of two trillion hours of face-to-face education lost globally.
Africa Case Study
In addition to the data on learning disabilities, the report highlights emerging evidence that many children did not return to school when their classrooms reopened, including in Liberia, West Africa, where 43% of public school students remained out of classrooms after schools reopened. in December 2020.
And between March 2020 and July 2021, the number of children out of school in South Africa, tripled, from 250,000 to 750,000. About 1 in 10 Ugandan students did not report back to school by January 2022 after two years of school closures.
Meanwhile in Malawi, the rate of girls dropping out of secondary school increased by 48%, between 2020 and 2021, and in Kenya, a survey of 4,000 young people aged 10-19 found that 16% of children girls and 8% boys. did not return when schools reopened.
“When the world doesn’t educate its children, we all suffer“Said a senior UN official.
© UNICEF / Maria Wamala
Students take a class at a high school in Kasese district, Uganda.
Vulnerable and marginalized
Out-of-school children are some of the most vulnerable and socially marginalized adolescents – least able to read, write or do basic math.
Furthermore, they are cut off from the school safety net – leaving them at an even greater risk of exploitation and a lifetime of poverty and deprivation.
Ms. Russell reminds: “Even before the pandemic, the most disadvantaged children were left behind.
“As the pandemic enters its third year, we cannot afford to return to ‘normal’. We need a new normal”, emphasized the head of UNICEF, “putting children into the classroom, assessing where they are learning, providing them with active support so that they recover what they want. missed out and ensure that teachers get the training and learning resources they need. ”
“The stakes are too high to do anything less.”
Slow learning
While out-of-school children suffer the most, pre-pandemic data from 32 countries and territories shows that already poor levels of education have been exacerbated by the crisis. education caused by COVID.
In the countries analyzed, the current pace of learning is so slow that it takes most students seven years to learn basic reading skills that should be mastered in two years, and 11 years to learn basic reading skills. basic math skills.
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the student has learned the basics, in many cases.
According to the data, a quarter of eighth graders, around 14 years old, do not have basic reading skills and more than half lack the same math skills as seven-year-olds in second grade.
