New York: The UNICEF has warned the governments against school closures despite the growing concern over the surge in cases of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19.
“Amid rising uncertainty, many governments are weighing whether to keep schools open. One thing we do know for certain: Another wave of widespread school closures would be disastrous for children,” the UNICEF said via a statement on its website on Friday.
The United Nations agency highlighted how the factors, including the lack of access to remote learning have negated the progress made on the education front for over a decade.
“The evidence is clear: Prolonged, nationwide school closures; limited resources for students, teachers and parents; and lack of access to remote learning have wiped out decades of progress in education and rendered childhood unrecognizable. A shadow pandemic of child labour, child marriage and mental health issues has taken hold,” the UNICEF said.
“Beyond lost learning, children have also lost the safety of school, daily in-person interactions with friends, access to healthcare, and, too often, their only nutritious meal of the day. This generation of schoolchildren could collectively lose US$ 17 trillion in potential lifetime earnings.
“That is why nationwide school closures should be avoided whenever possible. When COVID-19 community transmission increases and stringent public health measures become a necessity, schools must be the last places to close and the first to re-open,” the statement added.
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