Director-General of UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay has informed that more than 290 million students worldwide were missing schools due to coronavirus.
Director-General of UNESCO said in a statement that the children have their education disrupted by school closures amid the outbreak of coronavirus.
She said, “While temporary school closures as a result of health and other crises are not new, unfortunately, the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education.”
Another nine countries have closed their schools due to COVID-19; UNESCO stated that if these countries close schools nationwide, a further 180 million children will be prevented from attending school.
According to the statistics issued by UNESCO, the most number of learners affected are in China (over 233,000,000), followed by Japan (almost 16,500,000) and then Iran (more than 14,500,000).
UNESCO also warned the countries in school closures that these decisions are problematic for several reasons which include negatively impact learning achievement; decrease economic productivity, and compound inequality.
Director-General of UNESCO assured that the organization was working with countries to ensure continuity of learning for all.
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