by Devinder Buttar, AWC London
With the rising COVID-19 infection rates, countries have to again make a difficult choice between keeping schools open or enforcing a complete shutdown of schools and continuing with some form of remote learning. A far more difficult choice faced by many countries is to close schools again with the knowledge that millions of children will not be able to access remote learning due to a lack of devices or connectivity. This has resulted in amplifying existing inequalities across the digital divide. Even in countries with robust infrastructure, parental engagement and support, which is critical to remote learning, access to remote learning varies by socio-economic background. This always results in vulnerable groups, such as girls, being disproportionately affected.
In October 2021, UNICEF released a report that at least 200 million children live in countries that still cannot provide remote learning to students. The statistics are grim indeed when 102 million pupils live in 14 nations that have kept their schools closed for at least half of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Remote Literacy Readiness Indicator which was mentioned in the report is used to measure a country’s ability to deliver remote literacy in response to the pandemic lockdowns. The report analysis uses three key sources to formulate the index: household factors, policy response and country preparedness.
According to the UNICEF report, the African nations of Burundi, Congo, Benin, Malawi, Togo, Niger, Madagascar and Ethiopia are countries that desperately need to improve remote-access learning. During the COVID-19 epidemic, students living in countries such as Congo, where schools were closed for at least half of the former 19 months, faced the most disruption. This disruption will have grave consequences and will potentially result in a lost generation. The report highlighted that nursery education was the most neglected across the board. Most early learning teaching focuses on play and emotional development and while this is hard to replicate in a remote setting, it is necessary to lay the foundations of life long learning.
Innovative ways to bring immediate relief do not always have to involve the latest technology, A community radio station is bringing school lessons to poor tribal students in Odisha, India, who don’t have internet access or cannot afford a smartphone. Additionally, UNICEF has delivered more than 10,000 solar-powered radio sets to vulnerable households across Kenya, helping at least 40,000 children; the sets have been distributed in rural areas where access to remote learning is low. UNICEF installed loudspeakers to broadcast lessons in remote areas of Peru, enabling access to remote education for children in Peru.
“Even in the midst of a current catastrophe, we know there will be another one, but we’re making no efforts to ensure that students have better options the next time they’re taken out of the classroom...Despite being disruptive, the former 19 months have shown what’s possible during and after an epidemic... We’ve been working hard with partners to harness the power of technology and provide learning openings for children all over the world."1
In order to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on children's learning, UNICEF intends to reach 3.5 billion people with world-class digital learning solutions by 2030.
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1 Quotes by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore
Sources:
UNICEF: Remote Learning Readiness Index
UNICEF Press Release, October 28, 2021
Photo Guillaume de Germain by Unsplash
