大象传媒

Schools in 23 countries, with 405 million pupils, are still partially or fully closed because of Covid, the United Nations Children's Fund says. The charity, Unicef, estimates 147 million children have missed at least half of their in-person schooling. In March 2020, 150 countries around the world completely shut their schools, with partial closures in a further 10. Two years later, 19 still have some of their schools closed.

A parent in Trinidad & Tobago where the schools are yet to fully reopen says her daughter is frustrated with online schooling. "My sunshine child turns into this angry werewolf who doesn't want to do anything. Nothing replaces going out to school every day," she says.

大象传媒 Education Editor Branwen Jeffreys says that countries identified by Unicef with only partially-reopened schools include El Salvador and Iraq. Unicef is also concerned that children are not only missing vital education, but are being pushed into the labour market by poverty caused by the pandemic. Some are even being pushed into early marriage.

Photo: Little girl leaning on a woman's arm Credit: Getty Images

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