[ad_1]
Press releases of Monday, January 25, 2021
Source: Africa Education Watch
01/25/2021
A teacher with students
On this day, January 24, 2021, International Day of Education, as set aside by the United Nations, an estimated 5.3 million learners in Africa are at risk of dropping out of school due to COVID-19.
These children include victims of teenage pregnancies, early marriage, child labor and economic migration, and those attending collapsed private schools, due to more than 10 months of school closures.
As countries continue to reopen schools, African governments must prioritize interventions to protect the right to education by ensuring that all children who left school in March 2020 return in 2021.
We recognize the logistical and infrastructural challenges that countries may face; as well as the risks posed to the health of teachers and students while attending school within COVID; but our commitment to education as a right must overcome these obstacles.
We call on African governments to:
1. Give priority to the involvement of local communities, in particular parent-teacher associations, in the planning and implementation of their school reopening programs, and more specifically, in finding additional spaces for use as classrooms in communities.
2. Launch a campaign to identify and help all categories of children at risk of dropping out (as indicated in paragraph 1) to re-enroll and finish school.
3. Put in place measures to strictly observe physical distancing protocols in classrooms by maintaining an average size of 30 classes (one student per desk in a layout spaced one meter apart all around), in accordance with the COVID-19 class recommended by UNECSCO and WHO protocols.
4. Provide nasal masks, soap, disinfectants and running water at all times to students and teachers in the school environment.
5. Announce immediate deadlines for obtaining vaccines for frontline workers, including teachers and health workers, and in addition, all learners.
Source link
