Dropping out of school: the risk of a pandemic of never returning to class

The coronavirus pandemic last year and it disrupted the education of an entire generation of students. Statistics provided by UNESCO show that nearly 1.6 billion students from over 190 countries – 94% of the global student population – they were affected by the closure of educational establishments at the height of the crisis.

As stated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, “We faced a learning crisis before the pandemic and with the pandemic it worsened, affecting its consequences in particular for students at risk of social exclusion ”.

How is the pandemic affecting early school leaving? What are your main risks? “The circumstances are very different in each family, and with a different casuistry, so we already know that it will not have the same impact on all school children,” he says. Rosa M. Rodríguez-Izquierdo, Professor at the Pablo de Olavide University in Spain, who has just published an analysis on the dropout situation.

In pre-existing situations, there were already at-risk schoolchildren (from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, migrants and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities and diverse backgrounds) and they were often out of school. With the closure of schools, they risk falling behind or even dropping out of school for good. In the current circumstances, this issue is of particular concern and relevance. Online training highlights socio-economic inequalities between students with and without resources. According to data provided by the World Bank, one in three students cannot take virtual classes because they do not have a computer or the Internet at home.

More creative responses have emerged from the school sector to alleviate the connectivity and internet access challenges faced by the most vulnerable families. For him, UNESCO offers broaden the definition of the right to education to address the importance of connectivity and access to knowledge and information.

The COVID-19 situation will put many young people out of the game. For every teenager who gives up at 16 – or younger – there will ultimately be an adult doomed not to find a job or to access precarious employment. In this situation, inequalities will worsen, leading to a dangerously segmented society.

Outside of school

UNESCO estimates that around 24 million students, from pre-primary to university level, are at risk of not returning to school after education breaks due to the pandemic.

In primary and secondary education, 10.9 million students are at risk, including 5.2 million girls. The 10.9 million children enrolled in primary and secondary education are in addition to the 258 million children and young people of this age who were already out of school before the crisis.

The report “Education in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” ensures that the pandemic will widen by a third the funding gap needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals for Education (SDG4) agreed by the international community by 2030, despite the educational measures implemented, the education of the most vulnerable is seriously affected.

According to UNESCO, a 2.8% loss in early childhood education enrollments is expected, or about 5 million fewer children enrolled in school. According to the same projections, the primary could lose 0.27% of the student body and the secondary 1.48%, which would be equivalent to 5.2 million girls and 5.7 million boys who would drop out of school in both. levels.

“We are facing a generational disaster unprecedented in the history of education”, condemned Rodríguez-Izquierdo.

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