Create schools in Latin America, Caribbean where children can learn
COVID-19 closed almost all schools in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since mid-March, more than 95 percent of the students enrolled in the region haven’t entered a classroom. As lockdown restrictions are eventually and gradually lifted, governments will face a tough question: When and how should schools reopen?
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the current health crisis is threatening children´s rights to education, protection and wellbeing. Before COVID-19, more than 12 million children were out of school. How many more will there be after the pandemic? We have learned from humanitarian situations that the longer children remain out of school the higher the risk they never return, especially for the most vulnerable children.
Overall, school closures have had an impact on learning pathways of most children and adolescents, but vulnerable groups are the most affected. Beyond learning, important services in many countries, such as meals and health services provided in school, have been put on halt. COVID-19 and the lockdown have led to massive job and incomes losses for many families in the region. For those parents whose livelihoods have been most impacted, sending their children back to school will be harder to afford.
And what about teachers? They have been called upon to embrace new modalities of teaching in extreme circumstances. Is their employment secure? What about their own safety, health and well-being? Do they have the support they need?
Before COVID-19, regional projections indicated that in Latin America around 100 million children aged two to 17 years old witnessed violence or were exposed to at least one or more types of violence. With schools closed, children at home are increasingly vulnerable to domestic violence and abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual violence. It is vital for children and adolescents to go back to school and enjoy the protection environment that schools offer them.
The decision on the timing of school reopening lies with governments. It depends on the specific context of each country and should be based on evidence from the publichealth sector and guided by the principle of the best interest of the child.
What is required for schools to reopen? In alignment with the COVID-19 Global Education Coalition, UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Food Program and the World Bank have developed a framework to assist national preparedness and guide the implementation of the reopening of schools.
The coming weeks will be critical for countries to prepare for the reopening of schools and for establishing policies, procedures and financing for safe school operations and protective environments. School administrators, teachers, communities, families and children must be fully cognizant of the measures they need to take to mitigate risks. The teaching workforce needs to be prepared and supported. Schools will need to be ready to compensate for learning losses in order to prevent making learning gap even wider and to provide for the well-being and protection of children.
They must put particular focus on ensuring that vulnerable children return to school and that their socioeconomic condition, gender, disability, ethnicity or nationality do not keep them from receiving the education they need.
In the past weeks, many students have taken on the life-saving practice of handwashing at home. But will they find water and soap when they return to school? In Latin America and the Caribbean, one out of six schools (16 percent) do not have water services at all and one out of five schools (19.8 percent) do not have any hand-washing facilities. Now is the perfect time to refurbish and reorganize education facilities to keep students safe in and outside the classroom.
Probably more than ever in modern history, the resilience of education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean is being tested by COVID-19. There is a real threat that the crisis will erase gains made across the region during the past decades. However, it can also be used as an opportunity to rethink education and make it more relevant and resilient in the future.
After the COVID-19 lockdown, will we come back to schools where preexisting inequalities in access and quality of education are widening? Or will we return to safer, smarter and more inclusive schools where meaningful and relevant learning takes place?
Parents, teachers, students and governments across Latin America and Caribbean should not dream about the school to which they want to return; build it now, and together, for every child.