In the first article of this series I explored the impact of COVID-19 on education in England. This article shows that many of the same themes exist worldwide: the most vulnerable children have been most affected as the virus has exposed structural, intersecting inequalities with deep historic roots, children whose relationship with schooling was already fragile are at risk of dropping out altogether and a digital divide has widened the gulf between those children who can continue their education via technology and those that cannot. These impacts can be addressed with swift action, but this outcome is far from inevitable.

Global impact

As of 4th June 2020 nearly 68% of school children (over 1 billion) are affected by school closures worldwide. In response schools have sought to continue children’s learning online or via TV and radio. But only half the world has access to the internet and many children have neither a TV or a radio. For these children their education has effectively ceased. Before COVID-19 there were just under 60 million primary age children worldwide out of school. Now, during COVID-19, accounting for those who cannot learn online, UNDP estimates there are now over 410 million or 60% of primary age children effectively out of school.

Most vulnerable

COVID-19 will do the most damage to the education of those children already vulnerable. As Professor Caroline Dyer, an expert on education and mobile pastoralists explained to me, school closures may drive those children who are just ‘teetering on the brink’ to drop out altogether. These children often suffer multiple disadvantages: they live in rural areas, with little access to technology and face pressures to carry out domestic or manual work rather than study. Girls’ education is at particular risk. Reporting on these challenges in Kenya, Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi interviewed Rachel, a teenage schoolgirl in rural Mwingi. Online learning was impossible, Rachel said, and she had neither a working radio nor a TV. In addition she had many domestic tasks to do. In Rachel’s village it was planting season and she has to regularly fetch water. Only at sunset did she have time to read her schoolbooks before the light faded.

Digital divide

Rachel’s story demonstrates the ‘digital divide’ that exists between those children that can and cannot access the technology and infrastructure to continue learning while their schools are closed. Girls from around the world have expressed similar frustrations, for example on malala.org:

Rayassa (18), Brazil

‘In my community there is no free access to the internet and I am not in a financial position to pay for the service…we who live in the rural area of the municipality are the most affected’.

Celly (17), Brazil

‘I need to use the internet from my aunt’s house, but it is very unstable due to high use’.

Andrea (17), Guatemala

‘Many children in my country aren’t learning because they don’t have a technological device’.

Governance

The reasons for these problems will differ in Kenya and Guatemala. But as Professor Dyer notes, ‘patterns of governance’ will likely underlie both. Dr Evelyn Jepkemei, a Kenyan teacher and education advisor explains: ‘Northern and coastal parts of Kenya are mostly dry and inhabited by…pastoralist nomads. For a long time the government has not focussed on investing in those places, the infrastructure is bad, the number of schools are few’. Similarly, for many refugee children their education is a political issue. Some refugee-hosting countries refuse to integrate refugee children into their schools. COVID-19 educational support is similarly politicised. UNESCO reports that Rohingya refugees, for example, have been banned from buying SIM cards and deliberately denied internet access, making learning nearly impossible. COVID-19 has exposed the plight of those communities that have been historically overlooked and whose rights have been continually contested.

Schools: a safe haven?

For some children school closures have made their situation more dangerous. In Lebanon, for example, calls to domestic violence helplines have doubled, in China they have tripled. Similarly, Human Rights Watch warn that financial shocks have historically led to an increase in child labour as illness, job loss or disability reduces a parent’s ability to work.

Girls are at particular risk. During the Ebola crisis in 2014-16 schools in Sierra Leone were closed for 9 months. During this time 11,000 girls became pregnant and never returned to school. Crucially, those girls that could still access education, even remotely, were at less risk of early pregnancy as it gave them a reason to reduce their contact with men (LSE / World Bank).

It must be remembered, however, that schools are not a haven for all at the best of times. As Professor Dyer says, there are some schools, ‘where very disadvantaged children (in the Indian caste system for example) face name-calling, taunts, physical violence…I don’t see them being any safer or less safe as a result of COVID-19’.

Long-term impacts

The long-term impact of COVID-19 will depend upon how governments respond. As the UNDP notes, schools could bounce back and children catch up. After Ebola, many children returned to school. As I will examine in later articles, however, this outcome is not inevitable. COVID-19 will put enormous pressure on education budgets, particularly in poorer countries with fewer fiscal reserves, with potentially disastrous, lasting consequences.

Conclusion

The impact of COVID-19 on education worldwide has been swift and devastating. But children are resilient and the damage to their education can be repaired. Potentially, COVID-19 can be a catalyst to ‘build back better’ in education, to invest in poorer areas, to integrate refugees and rural children into education systems, to increase internet access and make the poorest communities more resilient to future shocks. But action must be taken quickly. As governments decide how to recover, a generation’s future hangs in the balance.