Sensoa International
  • Home
  • Wat we doen
  • Partners
  • Parlementaire groep
  • Nieuws
  • Page d'accueil
  • Ce que nous faisons
  • Partenaires
  • Groupe parlementaire
  • Actualité
  • Homepage
  • What we do
  • Our partners
  • All-party parliamentary group
  • News
  • Home
  • Wat we doen
  • Partners
  • Parlementaire groep
  • Nieuws
  • Page d'accueil
  • Ce que nous faisons
  • Partenaires
  • Groupe parlementaire
  • Actualité
  • Homepage
  • What we do
  • Our partners
  • All-party parliamentary group
  • News

What is the impact of school closures on young people worldwide?

9/11/2021

 
PicturePhoto by kyo azuma on Unsplash
Across the globe COVID-19 has led to the closure of schools for weeks and sometimes months on end. In many cases, distance learning turned out to be an imperfect substitute to live, on campus, classes and the school closures deepened existing inequalities, disproportionally affecting those who had already fallen behind: girls and women, poor people, refugees and ethnic minorities.

PicturePhoto by Thomas Park on Unsplash
Why did we fail to deliver distance learning?
UNESCO’s senior policy analyst Anna Cristina D’Addio points at a range of factors. First of all, teachers lacked support and the necessary skills for long-distance teaching. Even in high income countries such as the Netherlands and Japan, surveys showed that only 5 out of 10 and 3 out of 10 had the necessary ICT skills to engage in online teaching. In many countries teachers also lacked the necessary devices. What’s more, teachers across the world were also confronted with the mental health challenges of their students while at the same time experiencing an increased burden of work in their own lives, given that many of them were teaching from home, while having to look after their own quarantined children. 

Infrastructure and technology were another major factor in undermining distance learning: in many low income countries people lacked electricity at home, did not have access to internet or lacked stable and strong internet connections. Shifts to teach through radio or television broadcasting did not solve problems for poor families in LIC: in the DRC only 8% of the population owns a radio, in Nepal only 5% of the population owns a television, to give a few examples. Students who did have access to internet, radio or television, might still have been unable to follow classes, as many students do not have a quiet room for studying. 

Gender norms impeded girls' access to education
Boys’ and girls’ access to technology was also impacted by pre-existing gendered expectations regarding gender roles. Whereas boys were able to follow classes on their mobile phones, for example, many teenage girls could not as their parents did not allow them to have a mobile phone out of fear this would put their daughters at risk. As girls stayed home, they also did a bigger share of the domestic work than they would have if they were out of the house to attend school. For many children and young people, school closures also meant the school was no longer there as a safe place, to escape from hunger, poverty and possible violence experienced at home. An estimated 11 million girls might not return to school after the end of the pandemic. They are at risk of early marriage, early pregnancy and sexual and gender-based violence.  

What is the long-term impact of the school closures?
The long term impact of these major educational challenges found by UNESCO and its partners are not clear yet. Continued monitoring will be needed, improving the available data, paying attention to intersections and advancing the integration of gender in policy responses.
​
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on inclusion and equity in education was presented by UNESCO on October 21st to the members of the ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’, Belgium’s parliamentary group following-up on Belgium’s contributions to the realisation of the SDGs, with a particular focus on gender, health and rights.


Comments are closed.

    Archive

    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All
    2030 Agenda
    Abortion
    Adolescents
    Afri
    Africa
    AIDS2018
    Alexander De Croo
    Amnesty Chair
    Amnesty International
    Antichoice
    Anti Gender
    Anti-gender
    Award
    Be Cause Health
    Be-cause Health
    Belgian Development Cooperation
    Belgiu
    Belgium
    Cervical Cancer
    Child Marriage
    Climate Change
    Comprehensive Sexuality Education
    Contraceptives
    Council Of Europe
    Countdown2030Europe
    Covid 19
    CPD
    CSE
    CSW
    Development Cooperation
    Discrimination
    Diversity
    Early Marriages
    EDCTP
    EDD
    Educaid
    Education
    Enabel
    EPF
    Equality
    E Tutorial Body&rights
    E-tutorial Body&rights
    European Development Days
    Event
    Family Planning
    Feminism
    Fistula
    Flag System
    FP2020
    FP2020 Summit
    Funding Gap
    Gender Action Plan
    Genderbased Violence
    Gender Equality
    Gender Norms
    Girls And Women
    Global Gag Rule
    Health
    HIV
    HIV/AIDS
    Hiv Prevention
    Hiv Treatment
    Hiv Vaccine
    HPV
    Humanitarian Crises
    Human Rights
    ICPD
    Infertility
    IPPF
    Key Populations
    LGBTI
    LSHTM
    Marleen Temmerman
    Maternal Health
    Maternal Morbidity
    Maternal Mortality
    Meryame Kitir
    Mexico City Policy
    Migration
    Minister De Croo
    Mozambique
    ODA
    Opposition
    Parliamentarians For The 2030 Agenda
    Parliamentary Delegation
    Perspective 2030
    Peter Piot
    Policy Note
    Population Growth
    Report
    Reproductive Rights
    Resolution
    RMNCH
    Rutgers
    SDG3
    SDG4
    SDG5
    SDGs
    Sensoa
    Sensoa Flagsystem
    Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights
    Sexual Health
    Sexuality
    Sexual Rights
    Sexual Violence
    SGBV
    She Decdes
    She Decides
    SRHR
    STI
    Stigma
    Sustainable Development
    SWOP
    Teenage Pregnancies
    The Philippines
    Trump
    UHC
    UNAIDS
    UNESCO
    UNFPA
    UNICEF
    Unplanned Pregnancies
    UNWOMEN
    Urbanization
    Voluntary National Review
    WAS 2017
    WHO
    Women And Girls
    Women's Rights
    Worlds AIDS Day
    Young People
    Youth
    Zanzu

    RSS Feed