Over 154 crore students are severely impacted by closure of educational institutions across the world amid the COVID19 outbreak due to which girls will be the worst hit as it will lead to increased drop-out rates and further entrench gender gaps in education, UNESCO said.
Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’sAssistant Director-General for Education, said that shutting down of schoolsdue to the COVID19 pandemic comes with a warning of “potential for increaseddrop-out rates which will disproportionately affect adolescent girls, furtherentrench gender gaps in education and lead to increased risk of sexualexploitation, early pregnancy and early and forced marriage”.
“Out of the total population of students enrolled ineducation globally, we estimate that over 89 per cent are currently out ofschool because of COVID19. This represents 154 crore students enrolled inschool or university, including nearly 74 crore girls. Over 11 crore of thesegirls are living in the world’s least developed countries where getting aneducation is already a struggle,” she told over phone from Paris.
According to Giannini, for girls living in refugee camps or who are internally displaced, shutting down of schools will be the most devastating as they are already at a disadvantage and education responses must prioritise the needs of adolescent girls’ at the risk of reversing 20 years of gains made for girls’ education.