The coronavirus pandemic has been raging across the world for almost a year. Unfortunately, the education of students has suffered, further widening inequalities.
School is above all a place of socialization for the child. It creates social relationships and flourishes over the years. The teachers are there to supervise the lessons and help the students when they have difficulties or questions. In addition, schools sometimes offer an ideal setting for these students who come from disadvantaged families, allowing them to benefit from personalized support, a canteen with inexpensive meals and computer tools adapted to their courses.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has ended all of these benefits. Kindergarten to high school students have seen their education shift from school to home. For some students, it was even impossible to take the lessons at a distance, for lack of attention or lack of means. Indeed, distance education widens inequalities. Not everyone has a good internet connection at home or the same adequate computer tools, which is the case at school.
Read also :
"Hundreds of millions of children are still out of school"
According to the NGO Save the Children, on average, children lost 74 days of school each (or almost 16 weeks), which is almost a third of a school year that has 180 days. In addition, 91% of students around the world were out of school at the peak of the pandemic. "Almost a year after the official declaration of the global pandemic, hundreds of millions of children are still out of school", alarmed Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, in a statement released on March 2.
The pandemic has also widened the inequalities between students in rich and poor countries, families from different backgrounds, refugee and non-refugee children, and students with or without disabilities. According to the NGO, more than 15 million students in the United States were unable to attend distance education because of poor internet connection at the start of the pandemic. While in Latin America, the Caribbean and South Asia, children missed almost three times as many days of school as children in Western Europe, which is 110 days without education compared to 38.
The NGO also warns about the fate of minors in certain poor and disadvantaged countries where they are more likely to be exposed to exploitation, forced marriage or even abuse.