The S.O.S for education issued by UNICEF to minimise the impact of the pandemic on education and children received the EU’s full support on Wednesday 23 September.
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, Vice-President of the European Commission Dubravka Šuica and UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a joint statement: “As schools remain closed for half the world’s students due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are issuing an S.O.S. message urging countries to prioritise schools in their re-opening plans”.
They point out that the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated deep inequalities in access to schools, high-quality learning and digital connectivity.
“Decisions to close schools should be temporary and accompanied by plans for every child to access remote learning so that they can continue their studies to the best of their abilities uninterrupted”.
While 875 million students are still affected, they note that an additional 150 million children could be plunged into poverty because of Covid-19.
In addition to the importance of education for children's development, safety and opportunity to escape poverty, they point to the loss in global earnings due to the time in school that children have already missed - a loss in earnings estimated at $10 trillion by the World Bank in July. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)