As the world enters a second year living with the COVID-19 pandemic, half of the global student population is still affected by full or partial school closures. To mobilize and support learning continuity, UNESCO established the Global Education Coalition which today counts 160 members working around three central themes: Gender, connectivity and teachers.
On 29 March 2021, UNESCO convened a high-level ministerial meeting to take stock of lessons learnt, the greatest risks facing education today and strategies to leave no learner behind. MPGU Rector, Alexey Lubkov was invited to participate in the meeting «One year into COVID: Prioritizing education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe».
UNESCO General Director Audrey Azule opened the meeting by stating numbers that show a significant decrease in education around the world which allows to characterize the current state of educational situaltion world-wide as catastrophic. The pandemic has negatively affected 91% of students and pupils around the world (2,6 bil.) The situation is especially detrimental for primary education. Closing schools has resulted in the increase of illiteracy level — more than 100 mil. children are expected not to learn how to read. The major part of such kids, especially girls, will not return to school. If urgent measures are not taken today, soon more than 24 million children and young people may quit shools. It is clear that UNESCO will not meet the plan to introduce primary education on the global level.
Read the full article in Russian here.
Read article on the topic at UNESCO website here.
