UN calls for Covid-closed schools to reopen ASAP

Students of Kakungulu Memorial Secondary School in Kibuli with their luggage after President Museveni directed all schools to close in March following the outbreak of Covid-19. PHOTO/FILE

Summary

• Schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic must reopen as soon as possible, the United Nations insisted Tuesday, estimating that the education of more than 600 million children

By AFP

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Kampala. Schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic must reopen as soon as possible, the United Nations insisted Tuesday, estimating that the education of more than 600 million children was at stake.

"This cannot go on," James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told reporters in Geneva.

While acknowledging the difficult choices that governments have to make when facing the Covid-19 crisis and the possible spread of the disease, "schools should be the last to close and the first to reopen," he said, calling it a "terrible mistake" to reopen bars and pubs before schools.

"Reopening schools cannot wait for all teachers and students to be vaccinated," he added, calling on governments to protect their education budgets despite the economic hardship caused by the pandemic.

While children in the northern hemisphere are on their summer holidays, in eastern and southern Africa, an estimated 40 percent of school-age children are currently out of school.

Across that region, schools are being closed due to Covid-19 surges, with more than 32 million children estimated to be out of school due to pandemic-related closures or having failed to return after their classrooms reopened.