Report: Argentina is among the 10% of countries that have closed schools for the longest time

Between March 11, 2020 and February 2, 2021, schools have been completely closed for 95 days on average worldwide, which is about half of the time spent teaching in the classroom, according to a report by UNICEF that monitored school closings during the pandemic.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean were the hardest hit with 158 days on average, followed by countries in South Asia, with an average of 146 days, and countries in East and South Africa, with an average of 101 days. Argentina is among the 10% of countries that have closed their physical schools the longest, with 46 weeks in total without face-to-face lessons.

In the European Union, almost no country has closed its schools for more than 35 weeks. As an example, Germany closed 28, Spain 15, Italy 35 and France 10, according to the report.

In China, where the first cases of the coronavirus were reported in December 2019, children were excluded from classrooms for 27 weeks. In the United States, where the response to the pandemic has been different from state to state, some schools remained open for most of 2020, but others were closed for 47 weeks. In Brazil, no action has been taken at the federal level either, so the time spent out of school has varied from state to state, with a maximum of 44 weeks without taking a course in some. places.

At the World level, 214 million students in 23 countries lost at least three quarters of their teaching time in the classroom since March 2020. Countries with longer school closings tend to have a low prevalence of school-aged children with a fixed internet connection at home.

School closures are expected to exacerbate the learning crisis that existed before the pandemic, the most vulnerable children being the most affected, according to Unicef. The World Bank estimates that school closures around the world could result in a loss of at least $ 10 trillion in lifetime income for this generation. Early evidence of school closures already suggests an increase in early marriages and sexual violence, while others point to increased participation of children in household chores.

In October 2020, UNESCO published a report in which it compiled a series of studies on all available information on the role of children and schools in the spread of the coronavirus. Here are the main conclusions:

THE NATION