THE United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) urged the education sector to reopen schools in countries where millions of students are still not permitted to go back to classrooms 18 months since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world.
According to a report released by the UNICEF on Thursday, schools in 17 countries remain closed and in 39 countries, schools are partially closed.
In the Philippines, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Panama, and Kuwait, schools in these countries are still fully closed where nearly 77 million students attend.
A third of this figure is from the Philippines, which is still combating Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks and only started its school year this week.
According to the UNICEF, students from these six countries represent more than half of the 131 million students worldwide that failed to do more than three quarters of face-to-face learning.
“The education crisis is still here, and with each passing day that classrooms remain dark, the devastation worsens,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
In a report, teachers should be prioritized in getting COVID-19 vaccines second to the health workers and those who are at risk so they can protect themselves from virus transmission.
Students are much safer at home but the availability of computers, mobile phones, and internet, and the insufficient education quality are among of the challenges that the students faced.
UNICEF and its partners will shut down digital channels for 18 hours on Thursday to focus the attention in the crisis and the lost learning for 18 months.
Fore said this is a crisis that they will not allow the world to ignore. She added that their channels are silent but the message is loud: every community must reopen schools as soon as possible.