At the height of coVID-19 closure this year, more than 90% of the world’s young people (about 1. 6 billion) did not attend school. From kindergartens to schools and vocational education programs, schools have been closed in 188 countries. , an unprecedented disruption in the history of education.
Today, schools remain closed in 34 countries, achieving more than 577 million students.
The UNICEF team of more than 800 education professionals is working with governments and partners in 152 low- and middle-income countries and territories to keep young people learning about the pandemic, providing recommendations on how to reopen and operate schools in a safe and for academics to learn at home. currently tailoring distance education responses to your needs, adding radio, television, cell phone, and online teaching.
Poor and marginalized youth in low- and middle-income countries count on school for many things other than learning: this is the position to go through a nutritious meal, fitness services, clean water and sanitation. UNICEF and the Program World Foods Are Tracking Young People Who Need School Meals With An Online School Meals Card; Currently, 304 million international young people lack school meals.
Many young people in high-income countries also depend on school food. In 2018, nearly 30 million young people in the United States earned loose or cheap food as a component of the National School Lunch Program.
For the most vulnerable children, school is a safe haven against violence and exploitation. The closure of schools during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has led to an increase in rates of sexual abuse and pregnancy in adolescence.
“Increasing inequalities, fitness problems, violence, child labour and child marriage are just some of the long-term threats to young people attending school.
“Rising inequalities, fitness issues, violence, child labour and child marriage are just a few of the long-term threats to young people who don’t go to school,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “We know that younger people stay in school longer, they are less likely to return. However, we are not prioritizing the reopening of schools, when we do, we will probably see a devastating reversal of progress in education. “
Some 25 million young internationals are at risk of never going back to school, UNICEF Chief of Education Robert Jenkins warns.
Decisions about when and how to reopen schools depend on each community’s unique cases. UNICEF, the World Bank, UNESCO and the World Food Programme Schools Reopening Framework urge local and national government to thoroughly weigh all the dangers and benefits, and take into account socio-economic points and effects on schooling and health, taking into account children’s wishes. front and center.
Many schools have turned to online learning to connect with students, but up to 463 million international youth cannot access the Internet, according to a recent UNICEF report.
Even before COVID-19 emerged, UNICEF identified a desire to address the schooling of vulnerable young people and virtual exclusion. In 2019, UNICEF and his wife, ITU (the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency) presented Giga, a global initiative to connect each and every school, and each and every student, to the Internet until 2030.
In partnership with governments, Giga maps the call for linkage, uses schools as a basis, and identifies linkage gaps This information, combined with existing ITU mapping data, allows countries to inventory their existing infrastructure and assess appropriate responses to link schools. More than 800,000 schools in 30 countries have been mapped with Project Connect, an attachment tracking and mapping platform.
In partnership with Microsoft Corp. et the University of Cambridge, UNICEF has developed Learning Passport, an online learning platform that provides key resources for teachers and educators. Ukraine, Kosovo and Timor-Leste were the first countries to implement their online program, the platform. .
UNICEF supports a variety of teams to provide distance education, depending on the context, from scarce or no technological characteristics, such as providing paper learning fabrics to young people at home and supporting the creation of educational systems for radio and television.
In Bangladesh, UNICEF is helping the government learn content on television, radio, cell phone and the Internet. In Paraguay, UNICEF has developed video and audio content for young people up to the age of 6. In Somalia, courses are broadcast on radio and mongolia, UNICEF has helped produce television courses in the local Touvan and Kazakh languages.
UNICEF offers a wealth of helpful recommendations for parents and educators. As Jenkins pointed out, the challenge is finding the right learning tool for each context. Live distance education is sometimes unimaginable and requires constant planning. Families struggling to adjust to the realities of life during a pandemic want flexibility more than ever. “The key is to start with the learning outcomes and the paintings backwards,” Jenkins told UNICEF USA.
UNICEF advises parents on learning young people at home by creating a regime around school and school work. Design helps young people who feel restless or have difficulty concentrating. Parents can make learning fun by incorporating it into everyday activities like cooking, family circle reading, and games. “Take your time, ” said Jenkins. Have open conversations. Encourage your child to ask questions and express his feelings. “
The pandemic has put strain on families around the world, but young people are resilient, Jenkins adds. With the right support, he says, “young people can recover. “
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Sarah Ferguson is UNICEF USA’s content and social media editor. But it’s not the first time Her writings have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, Elle, Vogue and
Sarah Ferguson is a content and social media editor at UNICEF USA. But it’s not the first time Her writings have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, Elle, Vogue and New York Magazine, among other publications.