Over 10 Million Students May Never Return To School, UNICEF

By Nsunjo Erica

UNICEF released a report indicating that some 9.7 million children worldwide could be forced out of school forever by the end of the year as a result of increasing poverty and budget cuts incurred due to Covid-19.

Lockdown measures during the pandemic saw a peak of 1.6 billion children out of school globally, according to the report, currently, 9.7 million are estimated to never return, by the end of the year the figures will rise to about 10 million.

Education analysts claim that the current lack of engagement of key stakeholders in education sectors during the coronavirus lockdown could result in some children never returning to school.

The Ministries of Education should come up with a budget that addresses lockdown challenges and emerging issues in the sector to ensure learning continuity especially for high school students after the COVID-19

By the time schools reopen, many learners will not be able to return to class. If learners are not practically engaged, some of them will forget about learning, begin doing other things and move on with their lives

Analysts say that although there is no clear data at the moment to ascertain how many children may never return to school after the lockdown, the numbers shall shock countries immediately schools reopen after the restrictions.

Save the Children, which has 29 national members worldwide, urges governments and donors to increase funding of education, with 35 billion dollars to be made available by the World Bank.

Governments could at least have options for how to slowly reopen schools even if having children learn in shifts of three days a week so that they have real contacts and engagements with learners to avoid forgetfulness and loss of interest.

Girls are at increased risk of gender-based violence, child marriage, and teen pregnancy during school shutdown, the UNICEF report said.

Governments like Uganda are encouraging virtual learning via TV and radio during the lockdown. It has also distributed learning materials for those that could not access TV and radio.

However, it is not viable to rely on these lessons because it is difficult to assess who is and who is not learning simply because there is no guaranteed sensitization and monitoring of learners and the teachers

Other countries like Kenya that were to adopt online teaching and learning found hindrances like lack of electricity, gadgets, and the internet in deep villages, therefore the implementation of this exercise was close to impossible.

By the time schools reopen, some students will have gone into petty businesses, others will already be married off. So to avoid this, there has to be something being re-echoed on a daily basis about the education of the children.

To address this education emergency, Save the Children, which has 29 national members worldwide, urges governments and donors to increase funding of education, with 35 billion dollars to be made available by the World Bank.