The education officer of Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) in Brazil, Julia Ribeiro, warned of the resumption of face-to-face classes across the country: “It is essential to actively search for students who have not returned to schools .”
In an interview with CNN radio, in the frame CNN Education, she explained that, in the more than 2 years of the pandemic, there were profound impacts that “amplified inequalities that already existed and excluded boys and girls who already lived in a situation of greater vulnerability”.
Julia highlighted that, by the end of 2020, the country already had more than 5 million children and adolescents without access to education. “This high number represents a 20-year regression in access to education.”
At this moment when the networks are resuming the school year, with face-to-face classes, it is essential to make an active search, to go after every child and teenager who left school, who failed to learn or who was already out of it before the pandemic.
Julia Ribeiro, UNICEF Education Officer
She declared that it was essential to “seek to understand the reasons and work in an intersectoral way” to reverse this situation.
Unicef has the “School Active Search Initiative”, which has the participation of more than 3,000 municipalities and 20 Brazilian states.
Julia Ribeiro stated that the resumption of learning involves “diagnostic assessments for the different levels of learning, as some of the students were able to learn in remote classes and others were not”.
“In addition to these issues, different challenges were experienced, such as possible loss of family members and close people, mental health, situations of violence, child labor. It is essential to invest in intersectoral actions of psychosocial support for students”, he added.
According to Julia, the pandemic made it clear that schools “need to have a space for reception and protection”.
Source: CNN Brasil
