In Brazil 35 million children have been left without school for more than ten months. In the local politics of denial of the pandemic the government has tried to pander to certain sectors of the voting public, and, according to a NYTimes article, decided to “slowly reopen the institutions that were most important to us: shopping centers, restaurants, bars, gyms, beauty salons, movie theaters, concert halls, even betting shops”. But not schools. The result of this is obviously quite disastrous, with remote learning in place but with 25% without internet access the real figure is quite low. On top of this it has been estimated that up to 33% of children might even drop out of school altogether.As in many other countries, although probably more so, children are having increasing “depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and aggressive behavior”. Where schools were also providers of a stable meal at lunchtime many children are now also going hungry. A report last November by UNICEF, pointed out that “children in Latin America and the Caribbean have lost on average four times more days of schooling compared with the rest of the world”. The scene has been set for a major educational catastrophe. We must not let this happen.
nytimes.com/2021/01/25/opinion/brazil-schools-coronavirus.html