As large-scale school closures make face-to-face education in classrooms unavailable for more than 80 percent of students worldwide, UNICEF will significantly scale up support in all countries to help children continue their learning while keeping them safe.
“Like in many parts of the world, schools in Bangladesh had to be closed to minimise the risk of infection for children and school employees in this unprecedented situation.
We need to think hard and collectively act now to continue different types of learning in the home environment to reduce the negative impact of the current situation on children and society as a whole”, UNICEF Country Representative in Bangladesh Tomoo Hozumi said recently in a press release in the city.
“Based on lessons learned from other emergencies, the longer children stay away from school, the less likely they are to ever return.
Giving children alternative ways to learn must be a critical part of our response to COVID-19 in Bangladesh,” Hozumi added.
In Bangladesh, UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and the Ministry of Education to help children’s learning continue while they are at home during school closure due to COVID-19.
UNICEF will work with the government to help implement effective distance or remote learning programmes using TV, radio, mobile phone and internet platforms to reach the maximum number of students.
The initiative will make the learning interactive, will engage parents and learners, monitor engagement and will ensure assessment of learning.
UNICEF has started to work with a2i (Access to Information) under the ICT Division of the government to help develop and implement the first component of the education continuity plan.
