UNICEF calls for classrooms to reopen

March 03, 2021 / 1:35 PM

Sharjah24 – AFP: UNICEF has installed 168 empty desks outside UN headquarters in New York City. Each represents a million children whose schools have been entirely closed for almost a year, due to Covid-19 lockdowns. This 'Pandemic Classroom' draws attention to the "profound impact" of keeping students out of school and calls on world leaders to reopen shools as soon as possible.

Commenting on this, Robert Jenkins, Global Chief of Education for UNICEF pointed out, "For me, it is very disturbing just the sheer scale. And this representing 168 desks, 168 million children, it's hard to get your head around these kind of numbers. But when you see the sheer number of desks, it gives you some sense of just how many children have been affected."

Robert Jenkins continued, "At the height of the crisis, the height of the disruption of the pandemic, we had 1.6 billion children with their schooling affected. That's over 92 percent of the global student body. These are numbers that would have been unthinkable prior to this pandemic. So the scale of this crisis was unprecedented, but also now the time that it has taken, a year long, as represented by these desks, these empty desks. We're in new territory, once again, just demands urgent action."

He added, "What we've learned from such prolonged school closures has a profound impact particularly on vulnerable and marginalized children. So we're calling for all governments to open schools now. Schools should be the first to open during the reopening process, to take all actions to do so safely, to also provide comprehensive support as children reenter schools."

The Global Chief of Education for UNICEF concluded, "We have seen from previous pandemics like the Ebola crisis in West Africa, prolonged school closures increased significantly for example, a significant increase in percentage of teenage pregnancies and incidents of sexual based violence."