Education of 37 million Bangladeshi children disrupted by Covid: UNICEF

A report by UNICEF and UNESCO has revealed that 37 million children in Bangladesh have been affected by school closures since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

The report, titled “SitAn Report,” states that around 800 million children in Asia have experienced disruption in education.

The consequences of such closures include learning loss, mental distress, missed school meals, routine vaccinations, increased dropout rates, increased child labor, and increased child marriage.

 UNICEF Regional Director Marcoluigi Corsi emphasized the importance of ensuring a safe reopening of schools to prevent learning loss. A UNICEF-supported study by the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) showed that two out of three pre-primary to upper secondary students in Bangladesh were not reached through remote education during pandemic closures.