Unicef laments education losses | World News - Hindustan Times
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Unicef laments education losses

Agencies | , United Nations
Jan 26, 2022 04:25 AM IST

More than 616 million students are still being affected by full or partial school closures, the UN children’s agency said.

School closures due to the Covid pandemic have caused “nearly insurmountable” losses in education among children around the world, Unicef said on Monday.

A girl, who missed her online classes due to lack of internet facilities, sits on the ground in a circle drawn with chalk to maintain safe distance as she listens to pre-recorded lessons over loudspeakers, after schools were closed due to Covid.(Reuters)
A girl, who missed her online classes due to lack of internet facilities, sits on the ground in a circle drawn with chalk to maintain safe distance as she listens to pre-recorded lessons over loudspeakers, after schools were closed due to Covid.(Reuters)

More than 616 million students are still being affected by full or partial school closures, the UN children’s agency said.

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School closures due to the Covid pandemic have caused “nearly insurmountable” losses in education among children around the world, Unicef said on Monday.

More than 616 million students are still being affected by full or partial school closures, the UN children’s agency said.

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In many countries, in addition to depriving millions of children of the chance to acquire basic skills, these disruptions have affected students’ mental health, put them at greater risk of abuse and prevented many from having access to “a regular source of nutrition”, Unicef added.

“Quite simply, we are looking at a nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling,” said Unicef chief of education Robert Jenkins in a statement.

And “just reopening schools is not enough”, he added, calling for “intensive support to recover lost education”.

Unicef reported that “learning losses to school closures have left up to 70% of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-pandemic” in countries with low and middle income.

In Ethiopia, for example, children learned only “between 30 to 40% of the math they would have learned if it had been a normal school year” in primary school, the UN agency estimated.

Rich countries are far from being spared. In the US, learning losses have been observed in several states, including Texas, California and Maryland, said Unicef. School drop-outs are also a problem: in South Africa, between 400,000 and 500,000 students “reportedly dropped out of school altogether between March 2020 and July 2021”.

Finally, in addition to rising levels of anxiety and depression among children and young people linked to the pandemic, school closures also meant more than 370 million children globally did not get school meals, “losing what is for some children the only reliable source of food and daily nutrition”.

Israeli panel advises 4th vaccine dose for adults

An expert panel on Tuesday advised the Israeli government to begin offering a fourth vaccine dose to everyone over the age of 18, citing research showing it helps prevent Covid-19 infection and severe illness.

The advisory committee said research shows a fourth dose provides three to five times the level of protection against serious disease and double the protection against infection compared to three doses.

Hong Kong expanded a partial lockdown and tightened pandemic restrictions on Tuesday after more than 200 cases of Covid-19 were discovered at a public housing estate.

Nearly two dozen sailors on an Australian military ship going to deliver aid to Tonga have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday, raising fears they could bring Covid-19 to a Pacific nation that has so far managed to avoid any outbreaks.The Australian government was working with Tongan authorities to keep the ship at sea.

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