UNESCO stated that over 154 crore students have been hit hard because of the closure of the school and universities due to the COVID-19 outbreak due to which girls will be the worst affected as it would lead to drop-outs and gap in the education of gender.
Stefania Giannini, who is the UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, stated PTI in one of the interviews that closing down of schools and institutions because of the current situation has arrived with a warning of “potential for a hike in the drop-out rates which will somewhere affect adolescent girls, further entrench gender gaps in education and lead to increased risk of sexual exploitation, early pregnancy and early and forced marriage”.
From Paris, she told over a phone call that out of the total population of the students who are enrolled in education globally, we can keep an estimate that nearly 89 percent of the students are currently out of school because of the current situation. The total figure of the students who are enrolled in school is 154 crore students. Out of them, there is a total of 74 crores who are enrolled in any school or university. Again if we closely go through the figure there are 11 crores of the girls who are residing in the least developed area of the world. Getting an education in these least developed areas is yet struggling.
As per the reports of Giannini, all of the girls who are residing in the refugee camps would be most impacted by the closure of schools, in this situation the government must prioritize the education of girls below the age of 20.
The count of refugee girls is just half in comparison to male peers who have enrolled. We are only trying to understand the impact created by COVID-19, but there is a lot more to know and help to fight the situation.
As the government has been taking up a different type of plans to ensure the economic impact does not hit the country hard. Giannini said that in the same way the government also must come up with plans to ensure no effect on the education of girls who are part of least developed areas.
UNESCO has launched a global education coalition to support countries in scaling up their best distance learning practices and reaching children and youth who are most at risk.
With around a total of 80% cases in Europe and the United States, there are more than 25 lakh people have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus worldwide.