Over 40M students affected for educational institutions closure in Bangladesh: Unicef
The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) has observed that over 40 million students in Bangladesh have been affected due to the prolonged closure of educational institutions throughout the pandemic.
Unicef also thinks that the longer children remain out of school, the less likely they are to return as they face increased risks of violence, child labour and child marriage.
"Schools closures and lack of in-person teaching and learning activities have an extremely serious impact not only on children's education but also on their health, protection and psychosocial well-being," said Tomoo Hozumi, Unicef Representative in Bangladesh.
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The Unicef representative said that marginalized children are suffering the heaviest losses which push them further into poverty and inequalities now and in the future.
"It is crucial that we prioritize a safe reopening of schools and invest in remediation of learning losses for those most affected. Our decisions today will influence these children throughout their entire lives," he added.
Unless mitigation measures are implemented, the World Bank estimates a loss of $10 trillion in earnings over time for this entire generation of students.
Existing evidence shows the cost of addressing learning gaps are lower and more effective when they are tackled earlier, and that investments in education support economic recovery, growth and prosperity.
Under this circumstance, Unicef urged governments around the world to reopen schools for in-person learning as soon as possible, and to provide a comprehensive recovery response for students.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government is taking preparation to reopen educational institutions as soon as possible.
There are 1.5 lakh educational institutions with 5 crore students from primary to higher education in the country. The students mostly remain out of their academic study since March 17 when the educational institutions were closed due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The government extended the closure multiple times to August 31, but it has been repeatedly saying that the schools and colleges will reopen only after the Covid-19 situation improves.
