Children have lost over third of global 190-day school year due to COVID: Report

Children across the world have lost an average of 74 days of education or more than a third of the standard global 190-day school year each due to COVID-19-related school closures and lack of access to remote learning, a report by Save the Children revealed recently.

Key Highlights

• In total, an estimated 112 billion days of education have been lost altogether, with the world’s poorest children being disproportionately affected, it said.
• A new analysis of data for 194 countries and different regions showed that children in Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia, missed out on almost triple the education of children in Western Europe, the child rights NGO said.
• For the study, the analysis of the total number of 112 billion days of lost education and the impact per region, Save the Children looked at existing data on school closures, access to remote learning, out-of-school rates, and school-aged population.
• Broken down at the regional level, the difference in lost days of education becomes clear, it said.
• Both in Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia, children went through around 110 days without any education, children in the Middle East lost 80 days of education, those in Sub-Saharan Africa lost an average of 69 days, in East Asia and the Pacific, children lost an average of 47 days, in Europe and Central Asia, they lost out on an average of 45 days and in Western Europe alone, it was 38 days.
• In an India-centric report of November 2020, ‘A Generation at Stake: Protecting India’s Children from COVID-19’s Impact’, the child rights body had said that children are most stressed about the uncertainties that the pandemic has brought in their lives.
• Three out of every four children reported an increase in negative feelings since the outbreak of the pandemic, many citing reasons like ambiguity over getting back to school, no contacts with teachers or friends, loss of livelihoods in the family leading to insecurities and violence in the household relationships.

SOURCE: The Indian Express

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