Children lost an average of 74 days of education around the world each, or nearly a third of a school year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, with widening inequalities, says the NGO Save the Children Tuesday.
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“
Almost a year after the official declaration of the global pandemic, hundreds of millions of children are still out of school,
” Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement, calling for their efforts to be made. back to class a priority.
At the height of the pandemic, 91% of the world's students were out of school.
The closure of schools has widened the gaps between rich and poor countries but also within countries, between wealthy and precarious families, urban and rural, refugee children or not, disabled or without disability, underlines the NGO.
In the United States, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 15 million students from kindergarten to high school did not have sufficient internet connection to follow distance education.
Children living in Latin America, the Caribbean and South Asia missed almost three times as many days of school as children in Western Europe, with 110 days without education respectively compared to 38, says the advocacy organization. children's rights, which analyzed data from 194 countries and different regions.
In addition to missing learning days, out-of-school minors are at higher risk of child labor, child marriage and other forms of abuse, Save the Children points out.
Three months away from the G7 summit to be held in June in the UK, Save the Children is advocating that "
world leaders make it a priority to get children back to school in the safest possible way, especially children. girls
”.
The NGO also calls on governments and donors to help the Global Partnership for Education reach its goal of raising $ 5 billion by 2025.
