Source : UNESCO
Since COVID-19 burst onto the world stage, headlines have mounted about the millions of children suddenly out of school due to the closures during countries’ lockdowns. Lessons from earlier school closures, such as the Ebola crisis in West Africa, tell us that the most marginalised children may be left behind. The 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report also sounds the alarm, warning that educational opportunities continue to be unequally distributed, leaving the most marginalised children at higher risk of further exclusion because of COVID-19-related school closures. That begs the question – what about the 1 in 5 children who were previously out of school or those in school but on the margins, at a high risk of dropout before the COVID-19 pandemic struck?