Entitled «Inclusion and education – All Means All», the document warns about the problems aggravated by a lack of attention and resources during the health crisis for the traditionally unattended groups: the poor, girls and people with disabilities.
«Past experiences – as with Ebola – have shown that health crises can leave a large number of people by the wayside, especially the poorest girls, many of whom may never go back to school,» said the director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay,
The pandemic has shown this fracture, «the responses to the Covid-19 crisis, which has affected 1.6 billion students, have not paid enough attention to the inclusion of all students,» said the authors of the report, adding that «around 40% of low-income and lower middle-income countries have failed to support learners at risk of exclusion.»
The report adds that «while 55% of low-income countries have opted for online distance learning in primary and secondary education, only 12% of households in least developed countries have access to the Internet at home».
According to Azoulay, «Rethinking the future of education is all the more important following the Covid-19 pandemic, which further widened and put the spotlight on inequalities. Failure to act will hinder the progress of societies.» jg/agp/acm
