Two Trillion Hours Gone with the Wind

'Covid-19 pandemic is far from over', is the clear warning given by United Nations a few days back. People must not let their guard down against Covid-19. More than the warnings, I consider, that what is most disturbing is the fallouts from pandemics. That list of fallouts too, is 'far from over.

23 countries have yet to fully re-open educational institutes. Many students are at risk of simply dropping out. When students are not able to interact with their teachers and their peers directly, their learning suffers. More the learning loss may turn into a permanent loss.

This is where the health crisis meets the education crisis.

Learning loss is future loss. It creates a dangerous spirally downward swirl that threatens the very implementation of the SDGs. We are midway through the implementation of SDGs that began in 2015 and will end by 2030. As per the report 'The Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education', published by the EU, approximately 220 million students globally have been affected in the higher education sector due to the disruption caused by COVID-19. How to compensate for learning losses, how to benefit and deploy remote learning and how to ensure that underrepresented, vulnerable and disadvantaged learners are not left behind will be some of the formidable challenges faced by the policymakers.

The pandemic has also impacted how scientific and developmental research is carried out, in the universities in view of campus closures and how the quality and speed of research are affected by online learning. Certainly, university governance has shifted towards management staff needing to take a range of emergency decisions and allow additional flexibility in many areas of activity.

Three Dimensional impacts

The importance of universities' community engagement, has also been brought into focus. COVID-19 has had a three-dimensional impact on higher education: teaching and learning; the social dimension of higher education (i.e. the effect on underrepresented, vulnerable and disadvantaged learners); and student mobility.

I would say that rising inequality in access to learning due to unequal digital infrastructure has been the issue even before the pandemic. Pandemic has brought into centre stage the thought that education may become the greatest divider, not the greatest equalizer as intended by SDG 4 . When the world fails to educate its youth future starts rolling downhill. The theme of ' no one is left behind' as intended in Agenda 2030 is at risk.

2 trillion hours, gone

The study has shown that 147 million children missed more than half of their in-class instructions over the past two years – amounting to two trillion hours of lost in-person education, globally.

Africa case study is more revealing. Many children did not return to school when their classrooms reopened, including in Liberia & West Africa, where 43 per cent of public-school students remained out of the classroom after schools reopened in December 2020.

A high percentage of South African, Ugandan and Malawian students did not report back to school in January 2022 after two years of school closures. In Kenya, a survey of 4,000 adolescents aged 10-19 years found that 16 per cent of girls and eight per cent of boys did not return when schools reopened.

Lockdown and slowdown

Out-of-school students are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized youth in society, putting them at even greater risk of exploitation and a lifetime of poverty. More seriously, they are the easy target for recruitment of terrorist organisations.

Apart from the loss of life, Pandemic Lockdown has caused a Learning slowdown which would have a more serious and long term impact.

 Dr Rajendra Shende, 

Chairman - TERRE Policy Centre,

Former Director UNEP, IIT Alumni  

Coordinating lead author of IPCC.