New Delhi: Saying that the future of 600 million students was at stake, The United Nations urged the immediate reopening of the schools following the COVID-19 pandemic.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesman James Elder raised the concerns at a press meet in Geneva on July 27. “Schools should be the last to close and the first to reopen…. Reopening schools cannot wait for all teachers and students to be vaccinated,” Elder said.
According to Elder, it was a terrible mistake to throw open bars and pubs first, instead of educational institutions. The UN suggested the governments to secure their education budget despite the economic hardship as fallout of the pandemic.
For the record, around 40 per cent of children are out of school in eastern and southern Africa. This estimates to 32 million students, who left school due to pandemic-related closure or failed to return after they reopened.
However, about 37 million children had already dropped out of school well ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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