The school year that begins this month in almost the entire world will not reach 244 million children between 6 and 18 years old, according to a UNESCO report, which considers the figure unacceptable.
The document, updated this month and cited this Thursday by the United Nations International Emergency Fund for Children (UNICEF), shows that the figure has decreased significantly compared to the 600 million children who were deprived of school last year. past, but in 2021 the closures were related to the restrictions imposed in the context of Covid-19.
According to Unicef, the main reason for the non-integration of these children into the educational system “is poverty”, a situation that the international organization emphasizes must be counteracted.
Education is the best instrument to guarantee a fair opportunity in life for these children,” says Unicef, in a statement released this Thursday.
“Children who do not attend school are at greater risk of increased exposure to violence, child labor and, particularly in the case of girls and young women, child marriage,” it adds.
“A new school year is beginning in many parts of the world. This news should cheer us up, but it also reminds us that deep inequalities persist in access to education: 244 million children are still out of school”, said the Director General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Scientific Organization). Culture), Audrey Azoulay. .
Nobody can accept this situation. Education is a right and we must do everything possible so that this right is respected for all children”, he defended.
According to the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM), even among children who have returned to school, many are not learning what they could.
“Many of those who did [voltar à escola] they are not acquiring basic skills”, warn the researchers who prepared the report, pointing out that, in low-income countries, “7 out of 10 children of 10 years cannot read a simple text”
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the most children and youth out of school, with a total of 98 million children, and is also the only region in the world where the number is increasing.
Second on the list is Central and Southeast Asia, with 85 million, while in Latin America and the Caribbean the percentage reaches 80%, which represents an increase compared to the pre-pandemic.
Even though the rate of children out of school is declining in most parts of the world, Audrey Azoulay warns of the risks of the number remaining so high.
Given these results, the goal that everyone has a quality education in 2030, established by the United Nations, runs the risk of not being achieved,” he warns, adding that “a global mobilization is necessary to place education at the top. of the international agenda.
Estimates also show that the gap in the rate of girls and boys out of school has narrowed around the world.
“The differences of 2.5 percentage points between children of primary school age worldwide and 3.9 percentage points between young people of secondary school age in 2000 have been reduced to zero”, says Unicef, admitting, however, that the regional disparities persist.
Unicef also mentions, in the statement released this Thursday, that, in Portugal, the number of children and young people whose right to education is at risk is around 6,500.
“In Portugal there are about 6,500 children who, according to the latest Report of the Commissions for the Protection of Children and Young People (2021), face this situation,” says the organization, which announces that, to combat these values, it decided to launch a campaign raising awareness and raising funds to combat inequalities in the right and access to education
Although they are not considered to have dropped out of school (one can only speak of effective dropout when, at the age of 18, the young person leaves school without having finished secondary education), many children and young people in Portugal are, in fact, situation of exclusion”, warns Unicef Portugal.
For this reason, the organization launches this Thursday the campaign “No return to school”, which denounces situations of non-compliance with this basic right and calls for the “contribution of donations to combat this phenomenon of exclusion, with very serious repercussions on children”. and young people and, by contamination, to the whole of society”.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the crisis in education, endangering the full fulfillment of this right, which is central both in the framework of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and in our Constitution”, recalls the director executive of Unicef Portugal. , Beatrice Imperatori.
“Educational systems, worldwide, are not fulfilling their obligations towards children and young people around the world and Portugal is no exception”, he stresses, defending that “the school cannot leave anyone out and the State has the obligation to comply with, and make effective this fundamental right”.
“The non-return to classes cannot be normalized, otherwise we will fail thousands of children and young people who deserve special consideration and protection,” he concluded.
Source: Observadora
