The Future of an Entire Generation Hangs in the Balance

By Yasmine Sherif and Joseph Nhan-O’ReillyDec 17 2021 (IPS-Partners) COVID-19 has upended our world, threatening our health, destroying economies and livelihoods, and deepening poverty and inequalities. It also created the single largest disruption to education systems that the world has ever seen. Schools also play a critical role in ensuring the delivery of essential health services and nutritious meals, protection, and psycho-social support, which means that their closure has imperiled children’s overall wellbeing and development, not just their learning. At the same time, conflicts continue to rage and the disastrous effects of a changing climate threaten our very existence and are driving record levels of displacement. Crisis upon crisis 128 million children and youth people whose education was already disrupted by conflict and crises have been doubly hit by COVID-19, with the pandemic creating a ‘crisis upon a crisis’. The length and extent of disruption to education systems around the world due to the pandemic has tested the very concept of education in the context of humanitarian crises. What does it mean to be dedicated to ‘education in emergencies’ in a world in which 90% of schools were shut due to a global pandemic? How do we support children get an education in countries affected by conflict and fragility when in peaceful and stable countries millions of children are at risk of never returning to school? Will the push to deliver remedial education fo...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Education Education Cannot Wait. Future of Education is here Headlines Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Source Type: news