Covid-19: nearly 10 million children at risk of never going back to school

Up to nearly 10 million children worldwide may never return to school after confinement due to the economic consequences of the new coronavirus pandemic, British NGO Save the Children said on Monday. Before the pandemic, 258 million children and adolescents were already outside the education system. Since then, up to 1.6 billion students have had to drop out of school (from school to university) due to the coronavirus, the report said. "For the first time in human history, an entire generation of children will have had their school career turned upside down," said Save the Children in its report.

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The association, which calls on governments and donors to act in response to this "global educational emergency" , estimates that up to nearly 9.7 million students are likely to leave school forever by the end of the year. Without this, the inequalities that already exist "will explode between the rich and the poor, and between boys and girls," said Inger Ashing, chief executive officer of Save the Children. In twelve countries, mainly in West and Central Africa, as well as in Yemen and Afghanistan, children face an "extremely high" risk of not going back to school after confinement, especially girls.

It would be unacceptable for the resources that are so desperately needed to keep the hope of education alive to be used to pay down debts.

The association calls on commercial creditors to suspend the repayment of the debt of poor countries, a measure which it believes could free up $ 14 billion to invest in education. "It would be unacceptable for the resources that are so desperately needed to keep the hope that education brings alive to be used to pay down debts," said Save the Children executive director.

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"If we let this education crisis develop, the impact on children will be lasting," she continued. "The world’s promise to guarantee all children access to quality education by 2030 will be delayed for several years," she added, citing the target set by the United Nations. . The association estimates that spending on education will drop to $ 77 billion in an average budget scenario in the poorest countries within 18 months. In the worst case scenario where governments allocate education resources to other areas to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, the figure could reach $ 192 billion.