Written by Ridhima Sharma
Our world would not have reckoned that a virus like COVID-19 would suddenly appear and indiscriminately distort the lifestyle of human civilization. Due to Covid-19, the world underwent numerous transitions, and it took time for everyone to adjust to the new normal. This deadly virus impacted everyone across the globe which stemmed from the closure of schools and other educational institutions.
Initially, head governments decided to close schools to curtail the spread of COVID-19 temporarily. After it was reopened for a few grades, the number of infection rates skyrocketed, and schools were back to being closed again. Thus, decades of slow but steady progress in educating children worldwide unexpectedly ended in 2020. By April, an unprecedented 1.4 billion students were shut out of their pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools in more than 190 countries to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. In most of these countries, education leaped online or was delivered remotely, but with vast variations in accomplishment and quality. Issues including internet access, connectivity, accessibility, equipment preparedness, teacher training, and home situations heavily hindered the feasibility of remote learning. However, the sad truth is that some students did not have access to such technology.
According to a survey by Education Week, 6 percent of teachers who responded said that “fewer than half of their students have adequate home internet access.” They follow up by stating that 5 percent of teachers said that half or less of their students had sufficient access to devices. To put this number in perspective, over 1.4 million K-12 students in the U.S. did not have the necessary access to devices to learn online.
Additionally, the Human Rights Watch found similar trends and structures common across other countries but did not make generalized findings of how the pandemic affected schooling and other children’s rights in individual countries.
The pandemic and school closures not only jeopardized youth’s health and security due to increased domestic turmoil and child labor but also impacted student learning substantially. Because the closure of schools cut off access to school lunch and breakfast, many students suffered from not having enough food. Unfortunately, although there were appropriate undertakings to set up a supportive remote learning experience, the evidence shows that school closures had a significant role in learning failure. The share of children living in learning poverty–already above 50 percent before the pandemic–reached 70 percent primarily due to the extended school closures and the relative ineffectiveness of remote learning.
In the post-lockdown era, a focus should be placed on education. Governments, educational institutions, and individuals must take action and ensure that learning losses do not accumulate any further.
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