Two years ago the World Health Organization declared the Covid pandemic. All around the world measures were taken to limit the infections. It started with washing hands and keeping social distance but soon countries decided it was best if people stayed home and avoided contact. In order to do this, schools and offices were closed and everyone become masters in online meetings. It was a bit of a struggle to get everything in order but most of us managed quit well.
This measure proofed effective when we only look at covid infections, numbers dropped and this prevented the health care system to collapse under pressure. But there where also other big effects of the lockdown. And for me personally I wonder is closing school, especially primary and secondary, are ever justified. Article 28 of the rights of the child states that every child has the right to education. Even without a pandemic this right is not available for every child on earth.
By closing school children are more vulnerable to domestic violence, child labour and permanent drop out. Here in The Netherlands most children could follow online classes, but have you ever seen a seven year old staying focused all day by herself? During the school lockdown I spend a lot of time at my neighbour’s house to help out, both parents work full time and they have two young children. Suddenly they were expected to also become a teacher and to provide a laptop or tablet to each child to follow online classes. This was in a very fortunate family so they were able to do all this but still the children missed so much education and are now almost a year behind on their learning schedule.
Now imagine this in rural Africa, there is no internet connection and if children are not in school they are expected to work. Schools provide a safe haven for many children. Education gives children better opportunities in the future but when schools are closed there is a high risk of permanent drop out. Especially women are vulnerable, it is estimated that 11 million girls worldwide may not return to school. (https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/girlseducation) These girls are likely to get pregnant at an earlier age or will not be able to provide for themselves.
Not only girls but all students report higher levels of stress caused by the school closing and there are more cases of depression. The lockdown increased loneliness and social isolation, this lead to more use of alcohol and drugs and change in eating patterns.
Since 2015 the Sustainable development goals are in place, these goals al have targets which the world it trying to reach by 2030. The fourth goal to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In the last years progress on this goal was already slow but the Covid crisis undid al lot of that work. Even if everyone put in all their efforts to get back on the same level before the crisis it would take up to 2024 to get there.
As you can see closing the school had many more effects than just reducing the Covid infections. But how far should we go? The damage that is done can take years to recover and students may experience life long effects of the lockdown.
Personally I struggle a lot with this question, we had to do everything in our power to get the Covid infections under control. But I think education is a very important right and is hard to catch up on if you missed almost a year of classes. So what do you think, if we end up in this situation again, should it be possible for school to be closed?
If you want to see in what countries schools are still closed due to Covid you can check out this link
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