Schools should be the last to close and the first to reopen, said the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in its latest statement which highlighted that the continuing of the ongoing scenario would lead to detrimental results for young learners across the world.

Ahead of the Global Education Meeting yesterday, the international agency urged decision makers and governments to prioritize the safe reopening of schools to avoid a generational catastrophe.

“Closing schools mortgages our future for unclear benefits to our present. We must prioritize better. We can reopen schools safely, and we must. Reopening schools cannot wait for all teachers and students to be vaccinated,” the UNICEF said.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic 18 months ago, education for millions of children across the world remain disrupted.

As of today, primary and secondary schools are shuttered in 19 countries, affecting over 156 million students, a survey carried out by the UNICEF revealed.

The agency asserted that governments have too often shut down schools and kept them closed for prolonged periods, even when the epidemiological situation didn’t warrant it.

“These actions were frequently taken as a first recourse rather than a last measure. In many cases, schools were closed while bars and restaurants remained open.

“The losses that children and young people will incur from not being in school may never be recouped,” the UNICEF said.

It stressed that the most affected are often children in low-resource settings who do not have access to remote learning tools, and the youngest children who are at key developmental stages.

“The losses for parents and caretakers are equally heavy. Keeping children at home is forcing parents around the world to leave their jobs, especially in countries with no or limited family leave policies.

“That’s why reopening schools for in-person learning cannot wait. It cannot wait for cases to go to zero. There is clear evidence that primary and secondary schools are not among the main drivers of transmission,” asserted UNICEF.

It shared that the risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools is manageable with appropriate mitigation strategies in most settings.