Corona and education

With millions of other students all over the world I am studying from home. My international internship got cancelled and I cant see my friends anymore. Not only students have to adapt to the new situation also teachers have to change and give classes online. It is believed that approximately 1.7 billion learners have been affected by the outbreak due to school closures. UNESCO reports that 192 countries implemented closures, and this event has made an impact on the entirety of the student population worldwide.

As I am writing this primary school already opened again in the Netherlands. A friend of mine is a teacher in primary school and she says its strange that you as teacher only can sit after your desk and cant give some kids extra personal attention. But she was glad for the kids they could see their peers again and she could work again. High school’s and university’s are still closed. Only some students who follow practical courses may again partly take classes at school. For me personally it would work better if I had physical classes on school. Going to school every day gives me structure and I find I function better with some structure. Here in the Netherlands we can continue to study from home due to the resources almost everybody has, but how is this for others? What is the effect of not going to school globally?

We all know that education for children is really important it enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty. Sustainable development goal 4 stands for education and over the past decade, major progress was made towards increasing access to education and school enrollment rates at all levels, particularly for girls. Due to the covid19 spread were in April 2020, close to 1.6 billion children and youth out of school. And nearly 369 million children who rely on school meals needed to look to other sources for daily nutrition. According to the UN never before have so many children been out of school at the same time, disrupting learning and upending lives, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized. The global pandemic will may have consequences that jeopardize hard won gains made in improving global education.

Distance learning is a great solution to keep education going for children, but not everyone has the same access to technology and internet. The outcomes of student learning will most likely be negatively affected by the closure of schools. Parents are expected to facilitate their kid’s learning habits. Parents are not trained to do it. Not to mention student drop-out rates, it can be challenging getting all kids back in school when they open again. School closure also has an unintended strain on the health-care system. Women make up almost 70% of the health-care workers. When kids are at home they often can’t attend work. I think it’s really important to make sure that children are going to attend school again when it’s possible to open these again. This needs to be a priority.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_on_education

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/coronavirus-effects-on-global-education.html

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/