COVID-19 pandemic has induced 'educational crisis' in world, says UN Chief Guterres

Pulling everyone’s attention on the educational loss being faced by the children due to the COVID-19  situation, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday, said that the world is facing an ‘educational crisis’.

To highlight the issue, UN Sec-General Guterres took to Twitter and wrote, "We are in the middle of an education crisis. 156 million students are still affected by school closures due to COVID19, and 25 million may never return. An effective pandemic recovery requires investment in teachers, digital learning, and systems fit for the future."
 

He emphasized that over 156 million students have been affected because of the closure of schools and noted that 25 million may never return to complete their school education. UN chief  suggested that the world will need an adequate amount of investment in teachers and infrastructure to make a digital education system for children.

COVID-19 induced school closure caused global 'educational crisis

 As the world continues to grapple through the coronavirus pandemic, normalcy has been disrupted in several ways. Pandemic has brought along unemployment, economic loss and educational loss with it. However, as the vaccination rates pace up, several restrictions imposed by countries to mitigate the spread of the virus, have been uplifted. Many countries have opened up schools for children and other higher educational institutions with COVID-19 guidelines in place.

Even in India, many states have allowed schools to reopen for higher classes. These states are experiencing a fall in COVID numbers currently and thus decided that it will be appropriate to allow physical classes, with appropriate precautions in place. These states include Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana etc.

As per a report by Johns Hopkins University, countries including U.K., Russia, France, Spain, and Ethiopia, were among the first countries where schools are fully open. Other countries, including the U.S., Australia, India, Japan, Germany, and Argentina, were among the major education markets whose schools were operating with a combination of in-person, hybrid, remote, and closed.

 On Monday, the overall global COVID-19 caseload has topped 198.1 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.22 million and vaccinations soared to over 4.11 billion.  
Image: AP