Five things you need to know this week about global education and coronavirus

Girls and the poorest children will be the focus of a major package to help developing countries deal with the effects of coronavirus on education.

They will be hardest hit by school closures caused by the pandemic. So the聽Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is providing $250 million to assist governments to provide learning for up to 355 million children.

国产视频淭he Covid-19 pandemic is creating an education emergency that could have devastating impacts on children in developing countries,国产视频� said Julia Gillard, GPE Board Chair. 国产视频淯nless we act now to support education systems, millions of vulnerable children, especially the poorest girls, may not be able to resume learning when this crisis is over.国产视频�

At least 630 million children are currently out of school in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.聽Of the 67 countries eligible for the GPE funds, 63 have already closed schools nationwide – depriving children of education, health care and nutritious meals.聽

.@GPforEducation is committed to ensuring that learning continues, and that no child国产视频檚 education is left behind.

We have unlocked $250M to support developing countries to mitigate the impacts of #COVID19 school closures on the most vulnerable children https://t.co/p5bzicwE5B pic.twitter.com/YXuLJ1wUxV

— Alice Albright (@GPECEO) April 1, 2020

Education ministries and local education partners can use the GPE funds to ensure learning can continue. Some examples are:

• Producing educational radio and TV programmes and distributing equipment such as radios and textbooks to the poorest households
• Supporting teachers – and ensuring they and schools are equipped to re-open when it is safe to do so
• Ensuring children with special needs and disabilities are included

Adolescent girls will be disproportionately affected by increased drop-out rates caused by worldwide school closures, UNESCO and聽Plan International warned this week.聽

Of the聽1.54 billion children and youth whose education is being disrupted by coronavirus,聽111 million are girls living in the least developed countries where getting an education is already a struggle.聽

“While many girls will continue with their education once the school gates reopen, others will never return to school,”聽said a statement聽by聽Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, and Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, Chief Executive Officer, Plan International. “Education responses must prioritise the needs of adolescent girls’ at the risk of reversing 20 years of gains made for girls国产视频� education.”

A separate package of help will support education for聽vulnerable children and youth affected by the pandemic in 16 crisis-hit areas.聽Education Cannot Wait (ECW) – the global fund for education in emergencies – is giving $15 million in emergency grants.聽

The money will aid children already impacted by armed conflicts, forced displacement, natural disasters and protracted crises. An additional series of grants to support the response in other crisis-affected countries will be released shortly and reach partners soon.聽 聽

国产视频淢artin Luther King, Jr. spoke of 国产视频榯he fierce urgency of now,国产视频� and the crisis for these vulnerable children is right now and that is why ECW is making its full emergency reserves available immediately,国产视频� said Gordon Brown,聽Chair of ECW国产视频檚 High-level Steering Group and UN Special Envoy for Global Education.聽

The fund is releasing its entire聽emergency reserve in two batches to support governments, UN agencies and civil society to reach children in just a few days. The grants will last from six聽to 12 months.聽

Fears are growing of coronavirus outbreaks in refugee camps on the Greek Aegean islands after a migrant camp on the mainland was quarantined yesterday.聽Authorities said 23 people had tested positive at the Ritsona camp near Athens.

It follows a聽confirmed case three weeks ago on the island of Lesvos – just 10 miles from the Moria camp, which is home to 15,000 migrants.聽

More than 40,000 refugees – 45% of them children – are stuck in overcrowded camps on the Greek Aegean islands in conditions which the government itself has described as a 国产视频渢icking health bomb国产视频�.

国产视频 is working with partner organisations to聽send 5,500 children to school聽on the islands. We are also聽supporting the Tapuat Centre near the Moria camp to provide education to 420 children and early childhood education to another 60.

South Korea has cancelled the planned re-opening of schools next week and will instead launch online classes, while delaying the annual college entrance exams.

Schools in the Japanese capital Tokyo are set to reverse a plan to start reopening schools that had been closed due to Covid-19.

Most Japanese schools聽have been shut since the beginning of March – but Tokyo’s metropolitan government said it was planning to reopen at least some schools in the new academic year next week. But now it is considering keeping them closed until early May.

One country which hasn’t shut down all its schools yet is Sweden. But it is increasingly being criticised for that stance.聽Theodora Papadimitropoulou, whose 15-year-old daughter is still in class in Stockholm, said: “I think the Swedish government is mad. What are they waiting for?聽Schools are breeding grounds for infection to spread.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-aD5NiBQxV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Sierra Leone has overturned a ban on pregnant girls attending school in a victory for human rights activists who had fought against it for five years.

The West African country introduced the ban in 2015 after a rise in rape, abuse and poverty during the deadly Ebola outbreak fuelled a spike in teenage pregnancies.

The government claimed that allowing pregnant girls to attend school would tire them out, expose them to ridicule and encourage other girls to get pregnant. Critics said the ban increased stigma and set thousands back in their studies.

国产视频淲e have cause to celebrate as thousands of pregnant girls across Sierra Leone will be allowed back into classes nationwide when schools reopen after Covid-19,” said Marta Colomer – Amnesty International国产视频檚 Acting Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

• Ebola lessons can aid coronavirus education response