UNICEF: One in three children has no way to study from home
A recent report offers practical advice for governments, focusing on public policy reform, funding requirements, safe operations, compensatory learning, welfare and protection, and how to reach the most marginalized children
In the world, at least a third of school-age children (463 million) were unable to access remote learning, once the COVID-19 pandemic closed their schools. This is the opinion of a recent report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), published just when many countries are facing the moment of “back to school”.
“For some 463 million children, whose schools closed due to COVID-19, there is no distance learning”, emphasized Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “This large number of children whose education was completely interrupted for months, constitutes a global educational emergency. The repercussions could be felt in economies and societies for decades to come”, she added.
Likewise, Anja Nielsen, from Unicef-United Kingdom, clarified that, even before the pandemic, the digital divide in access to educational technology was already a “monumental inequity”. But the situation has worsened and greater efforts are urgently needed to “ensure that everyone has access to learning, inside and outside the walls of the school”.
At the peak of the pandemic, around 1.5 billion schoolchildren were affected. Based on this, the Fund’s report describes the limitations of remote learning and exposes deep inequalities in the access to online classes.
The reality that the world is facing
The report makes a representative analysis on the availability of technology and the tools at home necessary for distance learning. Specifically, it addresses the situation among pre-primary, primary and secondary school children, with data from 100 countries. These data include access to television, radio and the Internet, and the availability of the curriculum taught through these platforms.
Although that estimated percentage represents a worrying picture about the lack of distance learning, UNICEF cautions that the situation is likely to be much worse. Why? The entity explains that although children have the necessary technology and tools at home, they may not be able to learn due to competing factors at home.
These factors include pressure to do household chores, being forced to work, a poor environment for learning, and a lack of family support to develop assigned online curriculum.
Who are the most affected?
The report highlights significant inequality in several regions. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region, because at least half of the students cannot access distance learning.
Likewise, children from the poorest households and those living in rural areas are the most likely to miss their classes. In percentage terms, worldwide, 72% of schoolchildren who cannot access remote learning live in the poorest households in their countries.
On the other hand, in upper-middle-income countries, schoolchildren from the poorest households represent 86% of students who cannot access remote learning. In total — in the world — about three quarters of all the schoolchildren without access to this type of learning live in rural areas.
The report also exposes different access rates classified by age group. Here, younger students are likely to miss out on remote learning during their most critical years of learning and development:
At least 70% (120 million) cannot be reached, largely due to the challenges and limitations of online learning for young children, the lack of remote learning programs for this category of education, and the lack of assets (technological tools) at home .
On the other hand, distance education is not feasible for 29% of primary school children (217 million). Furthermore, 24% of lower secondary students (78 million students) cannot be reached.
And finally, children in upper secondary are the least likely to lose distance learning, as only 18% (48 million) do not have the technological resources to access it.
What does UNICEF propose?
Faced with this reality, UNICEF urges governments to prioritize the safe reopening of schools when they begin to ease closure restrictions. In those cases where the reopening is not possible, the entity proposes to incorporate compensatory learning for the instructional time lost in the continuity of the school.
In this sense, they consider that public policies must include the expansion of access to education, including distance learning, especially for marginalized groups. Likewise, education systems must adapt to withstand future crises.
UNICEF collected ideas from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). It also appreciated contributions from the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Bank.
In this way, the report offers practical advice for governments. The recommendations focus on policy reforms, new funding, safe operations, compensatory learning, well-being and protection to reach the most marginalized children.
Practical advices
- Democratize access to secure remote learning. Programs must be designed around modalities that are accessible to all and adapted for households without access to digital media.
- Modernize the infrastructure and the execution methods used by education systems and produce accessible resources based on their curricula. These improvements will make education systems stronger and more robust and can enrich learning opportunities for all children. That includes the roughly 258 million who are out of school, whether their schools are open or not.
- Identify the best combination of distance learning policies, to develop and provide quality educational content. Also, invest in infrastructure that helps reach marginalized children, especially those living in remote and rural areas.
- Train teachers and parents to effectively manage remote “virtual” classrooms and help children so they can learn at home, at all levels. This should promote learning approaches that combine classroom and remote instruction.
- Address gender and social norms that in many countries prevent, specially girls, from using computers and online learning to their fullest potential.
- Invest heavily in innovation projects that support real-time monitoring of remote learning. This includes formative learning assessments.
The UNICEF report comes as part of the “Reimagine” campaign. Their goal is to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from worsening a lasting crisis for children, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.
In conclusion, UNICEF calls for urgent investment to close the digital divide in the world, reach all children with remote learning and, more critically, prioritize the safe reopening of schools.
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