Friday in statements to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Audrey Azoulay considered that the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic led to the largest educational disturbance in history, while calling for the reopening of schools as soon as possible.

Azoulay said that the global wave of closures that has swept through schools and universities has affected the majority of students and led to a dangerous exacerbation of inequalities in education and radical transformations that affected entire educational systems around the world.

She stressed that the closure of schools and universities for long periods and their repetition leads to an exacerbation of learning losses and greater effects on the mental health of children, and stressed the need to keep schools open or reopen them as soon as possible, taking into account full compliance with health protocols.

Azoulay stated that UNESCO is working to ensure the continuation of learning by all means, including distance learning, although it cannot replace schools.

She indicated that, a year after the outbreak of the pandemic, more than 800 million students still face major disruptions to their education, between complete closures or reductions in the number of school hours.

Azoulay expressed concern that the crisis would lead to an increase in the annual funding gap allocated to education in the poorest countries, to reach $200 billion annually, and stressed that the long closures of schools and universities undermine the progress made in the education sector during the past decade.

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