English / aspanol
By Sheldon Shefer, Chair, by Board of Directors, Asia = Pacific Regional Network on Early childhood (Arnec)
After Kovid -19, the world will not be uniform for a very long time. Life can be so different that even a post -Covid -19 world can not be a post -Kovid -19 world in the sense of returning to any form of normal condition. We should spend more time to assess what this epidemic is having on the feasibility of achieving SDG 4. It is time that we extended previous discussions about the logistics of the school opening, which is necessary for the policies required to address the long -term damage of the epidemic. At least four major implications for education come to mind.
First, Achievements in almost all areas of development will be reversed and even lost. Mother, child and infant mortality rate; Vaccination rate; Food security; poverty; And the school enrollment and perfection rate will be affected. Parents may no longer be able to educate their children, and child labor may increase. They may decide to prolong the school education of the house in front of the serial waves of Kovid -19 or other epidemic, while students can decide not to return to school after their extended breaks.
Second, Young children will suffer the most from epidemicTheir nutrition status will be damaged, threatening their security, their health has been compromised, and their cognitive and socio-emotional development has been severely disrupted. They will come in contact with the atmosphere of the toxic home more often – the result of increased domestic violence and poverty – in which many of them will not thrive.
third, Childhood education and development (ECD) will suffer more than other education levels. The government -backed schools and kindergarten will probably have their teachers (although probably with low salary) during and reopening during the epidemic. But many non-mischievous private schools and community-based ECD programs have already been closed; Without salary, employees can leave and ECD workforce capacity, increased over many years, will be severely disappeared. In the last two decades, a slow but stable increase in enrollment in ECD programs around the world may return to several challenges a decade ago they were faced by a decade ago.
FourthExisting inequalities will increase in access to social services including education,
- Delay and disabled children, who often have additional support and targeted services in their ECD programs and primary schools, will not meet at home and therefore will go back and forth.
- Children living in poverty and people living in rural and remote communities already have less access to the equipment required to benefit from distance education than their peers; After Kovid -19, their families will be less capable of reducing the cost of enrollment in ECD programs and schools.
- In some contexts, girls will be more deprived and less likely to return to school, especially with poor families, with heavy domestic responsibilities and enhancing the possibility of pregnancy and early marriage.
- Children of refugees and migrants may face more stigma as the “bearrs” of the virus, low access to technology, and education programs are less well funded than before.
- Ethnic and linguistic minorities will also suffer. The children who were being taught in the national language will go back and forth, and those who are being taught in their mother tongue do not have online lessons nor printed materials in this language for use at home.
In addition, education facilities may suffer from insults, children may have been interrupted to learning, and teachers will be demolished and demolished; Some may also leave the profession. The challenge would be that the education was pre -Kovid -19 and to be strong enough to make sufficient progress to reach SDG 4. The current discourse focuses on a large -scale epidemic and immediate reactions to the mechanics of reopening, not its long -term effect when addressed. There has been no discussion of the solution of the challenges mentioned above. But some solutions can be imagined; For example:
- Take the discourse around Inauguration of schools Away from logical issues for its major challenges, especially increasing inequalities and exclusion arising from Covid -19
- More assess the nature and magnitude of the epidemic Effect on receiving SDG
- Make sure they most The underprivileged is given high priority Schools and ECD programs reopen, especially community-based ECD programs and schools and most affected families
- promote Education activities (especially those who are low-technical and no-tech) which have proved effective with disadvantaged children During the epidemic; For example, exercise books for children without home -based learning kits, supplementary reading materials and internet access, photos of homework sent by mobile phones to teachers, free educational program streaming, home -based tests and apps, etc.
- design Program for disadvantaged and excluded children To guarantee that they resume their education, make them for disruption done by them, and address the intervals that have increased:
- Additional support to delay and disabled children
- Additional educational assistance for students who are not able to follow online and high -tech distance and online education programs
- Additional effort to ensure that girls return to schools
- Psychiatry support to help children in better handling stress, anxiety and trauma resulting from Kovid -19
- Make sure strong Support to teachers In the recognition of challenges that they have encouraged (often without or with low salary) and encourage them to focus on the most disadvantaged children in the back infection.
- provide Support to school leaders Who will play an essential role in reopening schools with special attention to those people in schools in poor/remote/deprived areas
- adjust Government budget To meet the needs of children who have been affected the worst: make sure that no additional funds are provided only per student to reopen schools, but are based on the needs of various places and groups.
There is a risk that the damage caused by Covid-19 will withdraw the world where it was at an early point of sustainable development goals and at the time of Incheon Declaration (2015) or even Dakar (2000). Hard-vagon benefits, speed to increase childhood development and focusing more on successful initial learning, and many governments have a high risk of losing strong commitments to achieve SDG, especially if the above points are not underlined. It has been done as they build better in the future.
