UN: 400 million children in schools still partially closed from COVID-19

The United Nations children’s fund says roughly 400 million children across nearly two dozen countries are attending schools that are still at least partially closed due to the coronavirus. 

The millions of children span 23 countries, according to the UNICEF report released Wednesday, with some areas still lacking sufficient access to vaccines and unable to mitigate the virus.

The U.N. agency says many of the children are at risk of dropping out and others have failed to develop basic math and reading skills.

“When children are not able to interact with their teachers and their peers directly, their learning suffers. When they are not able to interact with their teachers and peers at all, their learning loss may become permanent,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

“This rising inequality in access to learning means that education risks becoming the greatest divider, not the greatest equalizer. When the world fails to educate its children, we all suffer,” Russell added.

Even when classrooms reopen, the U.N. found many children did not go back to school.

For example, in Liberia, 43 percent of children did not go back to classrooms when they opened in December 2020. In Malawi, the number of girls dropping out of secondary education rose 48 percent compared to the 2020-2021 school year. 

Most schools in the U.S. reopened this past school year after many districts shifted to remote or hybrid learning environments during the pandemic. Studies have shown the switch to virtual learning during the pandemic has had a negative impact on students.