INP
\nLONDON
\nBritish charity Save the Children has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an \u201cunprecedented education emergency\u201d with nearly 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class.
\nThe British charity cited UNESCO data which showed that in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of school and university due to measures to contain COVID-19 \u2014 about 90% of the world\u2019s entire student population.
\n\u201cFor the first time in human history, an entire generation of children globally have had their education disrupted,\u201d it said in a new report, Save our Education.
\nIt said the economic fall-out of the crisis could force an extra 90 to 117 million children into poverty, with a knock-on effect on school admissions.
\nWith many young people required to work or girls forced into early marriage to support their families, this could see between seven and 9.7 million children dropping out of school permanently.
\nAt the same time, the charity warned the crisis could leave a shortfall of $77 billion in education budgets in low and middle income countries by the end of 2021.
\n\u201cAround 10 million children may never return to school \u2014 this is an unprecedented education emergency and governments must urgently invest in learning,\u201d Save the Children chief executive Inger Ashing said.
\n\u201cInstead we are at risk of unparallelled budget cuts which will see existing inequality explode between the rich and the poor, and between boys and girls.\u201d
\nThe charity urged governments and donors to invest more funds behind a new global education plan to help children back into school when it is safe and until then support distance learning.
\n\u201cWe know the poorest, most marginalised children who were already the furthest behind have suffered the greatest loss, with no access to distance learning \u2014 or any kind of education \u2014 for half an academic year,\u201d Ashing said.
\nSave the Children also urged commercial creditors to suspend debt repayments for low-income countries \u2014 a move it said could free up $14 billion for education programmes.
\n\u201cIf we allow this education crisis to unfold, the impact on children\u00b4s futures will be long lasting,\u201d Ashing said.
\n\u201cThe promise the world has made to ensure all children have access to a quality education by 2030, will be set back by years, \u201c she said, citing the United Nations goal.
\nThe report listed 12 countries where children are most at risk of falling behind: Niger, Mali, Chad, Liberia, Afghanistan, Guinea, Mauritania, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
\nBefore the crisis, an estimated 258 million children and adolescents were already missing out on school, the charity said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INP LONDON British charity Save the Children has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an \u201cunprecedented education emergency\u201d with nearly 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class. The British charity cited UNESCO data which showed that in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n