Guterres: 1 Billion Students Affected by Coronavirus Closures

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history.

“Schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students,” Guterres added in a video message.

At least 40 million children worldwide have missed out on education, “in their critical preschool year.”

Guterres warned that the world faces a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities.

The UN Secretary-General pointed out that, even before the pandemic, the world faced “a learning crisis,”, where over 250 million children were out of school and only a quarter of secondary school youngsters in developing countries leaving school “with basic skills.”

Guterres stated, that before the pandemic, low- and middle-income countries faced an education funding gap of $1.5 trillion annually, now, the gap in education financing globally could increase by 30 percent because of the pandemic.

A global projection covering 180 countries by the UN education agency UNESCO and partner organizations disclosed that about 23.8 million additional children and youths from pre-primary school to university level are at risk of dropping out or not having access to school next year due to the pandemic’s economic impact.

Guterres continued: “We are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people.The decisions that governments and partners take now will have lasting impact on hundreds of millions of young people and on the development prospects of countries for decades to come.”

According to a 26-page policy briefing, “the unparalleled education disruption” from the pandemic is far from over and as many as 100 countries have not yet announced a date for schools to reopen.

Guterres called for action in four key areas, the first being reopening schools, adding: “Once local transmission of COVID-19 is under control, getting students back into schools and learning institutions as safely as possible must be a top priority.”

The UN Secretary-General pointed out that increasing financing for education must be given priority.

It is worth mentioning that the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China. It has infected more than one million people and continues to spread across the world. Over 18 million confirmed cases in 188 countries. Nearly 700,000 people have lost their lives.

Cases of the disease are continuing to surge in many countries, while others which had apparent success in suppressing initial outbreaks are now seeing infections rise again.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) special envoy David Nabarro told BBC that the virus is capable of "surging back really quickly" and is "returning all the time".

The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.

The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.

On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus”, and “disease”.

In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.

Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.

It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.

The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.

People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.