New Delhi: World Bank’s Global Education Director Jaime Saavedra said that there is no justification now to keep the schools closed in light of the pandemic and even if there are new waves, closing schools should be the last resort.
According to Saavedra, under whom a team has been tracking the COVID-19 impact on the education sector, said there is no evidence that reopening schools has caused a surge in coronavirus cases and that schools are not a “safe place”, reported news agency PTI.
“There is no relation between opening schools and spread of coronavirus. There is no evidence linking the two and there is no justification now to keep the schools closed. Even if there are new waves of COVID-19, closing schools should be the last resort,” Saavedra was quoted as saying in an interview from Washington by the news agency.
“It does not make sense to keep restaurants, bars and shopping malls open and keep schools closed. There is no excuse,” he added.
The World Bank’s various simulations indicate that even if schools are reopened, health risks for children are low and the cost of the closure is extremely high.
“During 2020, we were navigating in a sea of ignorance. We just didn’t know what is the best way of combating the pandemic and the immediate reaction of most countries in the world was let’s close schools. Time has passed since then and with evidence coming in from late 2020 and 2021, we have had several waves and there are several countries which have opened schools,” Saavedra said.
“We have been able to see if schools opening have had an impact in the transmission of virus and new data shows it doesn’t. Many countries have also had waves when schools were closed so obviously there has been no role of schools in some of the spikes.
“Even if the kids can get infected and with the Omicron it is happening even more but fatalities and serious illness among children is extremely rare. The risks for children are low and costs are extremely high,” World Bank’s Global Education Director added.
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