Arthur Greene
The average child in South Africa is now a full school year behind where they should be in their education.
This is according to a United Nations report on education across the world, which found that 635 million children are still affected by classroom closures.
“The global disruption to education caused by the COVID19 pandemic constitutes the worst education crisis on record,” the report began.
Published this week, it said that before the pandemic 53% of 10 year olds in all the world’s poor and middle-income countries could not read.
Now 70% of 10 year olds cannot read, even at the most basic level.
The report found that in South Africa the average child is between three-quarters and a whole school year behind where they should be.
Between March 2020 and October 2021, up to 500,000 learners across South Africa dropped out of school.
The report also found that since the start of the pandemic girls have missed out on more school than boys.
“Quite simply, we are looking at a nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling,” Robert Jenkins, the chief of education at UNICEF, said in the report.
The report called for “intensive education” to recover disruptions to learning.
“Schools must also go beyond places of learning to rebuild children’s mental and physical health, social development and nutrition,” Jenkins said.
