COVID-19, DISRUPTION ON EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS REOPENING APPREHENSION

I really think it is important to hear what various people are saying about reopening of schools and how ILO feels education has been adversely disrupted by COVID-19. 

According to a recent report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says COVID-19 has disrupted education of more than 70% of youths and "digital divides" between regions has also made matters worse in terms of virtual learning opportunities. 

In that same report by ILO, “up to 65% of youths in high income countries were taught in virtual classes with video lectures while only 18% in low income countries were able to keep studying online during the period of COVID-19”. Another report from Harvard says “online classes resulted in viral absenteeism and virtual dropouts among students within this period, in Boston Massachusetts, 20% of students did not log into class all through the month of May, 2020”. Now that we have seen the downside of virtual learning among younger students owning to a number of reasons, should we still leave the schools closed? Does anyone really know how long the COVID-19 will be here for? Has it come to stay or it will fade away soon? If it has come to stay, does that mean our children will never return to schools? Let's keep in mind, there is nothing as zero risks, we only can lower the risks. 

In as much as most people like us advocate for government to wait a little more before reopening schools, are we able to also think of the cost of ignorance that comes with our children not able to return to school. We must also realize reopening of schools will allow most parents to return to work. 

There are devastating cost of keeping children out of school, the list is just endless. This is understood but we must also benchmark these costs with the cost of sending children back to schools in this state of COVID-19 scare. The level of apprehension is high, we need to start opening conversations and consultations along these lines and get parents properly engaged. 

Lately, I have also been reading many reports that have alluded to the fact that COVID-19 infection has been found to be growing among children. Having this in mind and looking at poor compliance to the COVID-19 response guidelines and protocols among adult population, I get worried how much of compliance we may expect from children in schools. Reopening of schools is a global discussion that is beginning to have so many divides, we have seen countries that were in a rush to reopen schools and how they hurriedly shut down those schools after the surge in the rate of infection. We have seen this happen in countries like Denmark, Norway, South Africa and others. 

There is the need to keep in mind a new sets of risks are being introduced into schools as they open, we have varied degree of new chemicals now being used for deep cleaning in this phase of COVID-19. These chemicals are not only harmful and exposing the janitors to heightened level of risks, they are also harmful to school children mostly the ones with underlying respiratory condition and other children who may mistake chemicals in non-labelled canisters as water. Have we been adequately trained in schools on safe chemicals handling? How much of risk communication have we had with both school owners, students, parents and cleaners along these lines? Have we been able to request from parents return-to-school health assessment forms where questions of the state of health of each child should be clearly answered with focus on underlying health conditions as asthma and other respiratory diseases? 

In as much as we do not want these children to remain at home, we must carefully and collectively consider what works for us as a people and as a country, it is not a one-style-fits-all approach. The likely death of any school child as a result of school acquired COVID-19 infection will be a huge agony for any parent and this is the point no one wants to get to. The right to education has been classified as a part of fundamental human right of every child in any country according to UNICEF but it is also important to understand no child in anywhere in the world should be made to access education at the expense of his or her life. 

This seems a very difficult conversation for us all and the choices to make are all there but we must by all means assess the prevalent risks associated with each of the choice in the interest of both the school child and their parents.

These are my personal opinions as put together in this write up supported with a number of reports as referred. We will to hear your views, kindly leave a comment for us here. 

ehi@ohsm.com.ng 

Youth and COVID-19: COVID-19 disrupts education of more than 70 per cent of youth 

https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_753060/lang--en/index.htm