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When we look back on COVID-19, one of the many things we will remember is the disruption of almost every school being forced to shut down. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said that in April, roughly 90% to 92 % of children were affected by the school closures. Basically, a fifth of the world was affected by this.
Dr. Prachi Srivastava is an Associate Professor (Education & International Development) at Western University. She reveals to me that some students across the world aren’t even going to school.
“There are still an estimated 900 million children who are either not attending regularly or who are attending in very precarious circumstances,” Dr. Srivastava says. “500 million children across the world received no remote or distance learning education at all.”
Most classrooms have gone to remote learning, and while it has it’s pros to keep people safe, there are cons to it. Dr. Srivastava says that you need to provide remote learning broader than just online, and explains some instances around the world.
“In India, they instituted in one small area where the COVID prevalence was a little bit lower. They started with really small groups, physically distant, tiny groups that live in neighbourhoods, to try and kind of have some face to face instruction,” Dr. Srivastava says. “In areas where they couldn’t use the online instruction. There have been instances of using television, SMS or texting. There have been instances of using radio too”
But it’s not just in the education sector that has been impacted by schools closing. It’s also an economic impact as well. Dr Srivastava explains the economic impact of school closures across the world.
“For Canada or high-income countries, school closures of four months could mean a decrease of up to 6% of GDP. In real terms. If we were just to say it was a 5% reduction in our economy, that could equate to $85 billion of an economic loss,” Dr. Srivastava states. “in low-income countries, that could be 43% of their GDP, can you imagine half of your country’s output is wiped out by four months of school closures.”
Dr. Srivastava believes in the next generation and says she has hope.
“My hope is that this next generation is able to use that as fuel and learn that the what we’re seeing with this pandemic, and with all the other issues like structural racism, inequalities and climate change, these are not a natural phenomenon,” Dr Srivastava says. “I see a marked difference between the kids, the young people that are born in the late 90s onwards, there is a difference, you guys are more connected.”
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