Educo calls for children’s wellbeing amid rising Covid-19 cases

To mark the International Day of Education, child rights organization Educo launches the #FeedTheirEducation campaign to highlight the need for greater support for children’s wellbeing through increased access to quality education, proper nutrition, and educational resources, particularly during the current surge in COVID-19 cases.

Abdul Hamid, Country Director of Educo Bangladesh, says: “We strongly believe that children’s wellbeing can be nurtured greatly by ensuring children are able to continue schooling and that they are protected at all times. But to do so, children should have better access to nutritious food, and educational tools and resources on how they can learn more effectively and protect themselves by exercising their rights. For many children, however, this has been a struggle since the pandemic happened.”

The COVID-19 crisis has pushed more children into poverty and out of school, and therefore we need to address education challenges on all fronts and look into the various aspects of children’s needs in their schooling. It is noted, according to a study of CAMPE Bangladesh, as an immediate impact of COVID-19, around 40 million learners and 200,000 (approx.) institutes affected due to countrywide school closure for unprecedented global crisis since March 2020 to last 20 months in Bangladesh. Abdul Hamid, Country Director of Educo Bangladesh, says that “as a result, massive learning loss, health and wellbeing, psychological effect of learners, social isolation, child labour, lack of physical movement, limited guidance of parents, interrupted learning, disrupted school calendar leading to hampers the children learning gaps and out of school children & drop out”.

Though, the government is trying to highlight education response to pandemic and emergencies, due to COVID-19, many education institutions are disappearing and teachers leaving profession in search of alternative livelihood. In line with the International Day of Education, Educo urges governments to ensure that children from some of the most disadvantaged groups are prioritized and provided opportunities to continue their education. Educo, believes that the Education 2030 Agenda has been reflected as the central goal of SDG, highlighted as the success of other SDGs, such as in health, growth and employment, climate change and humanitarian response, and peace, values, and good governance that are also driven by the education goal. Thus, to ensure that achieving SDG4 and all its targets must be prioritized by the government of Bangladesh.

Educo considers that providing support to both teachers and students is also key to a better transition to the new normal. Educo’s latest global survey The Voices of 8,000 Children: The Right to Education and Participation as Explained by Children, which examined responses of children aged 6-18 years old in 12 countries across Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Spain, found that less than half (45%) of them were able to attend school physically at some point, while about a quarter have no other option but to study remotely. In addition, the study pointed the need for greater support and investment in the training of teachers amid the new normal setup, better internet access, and digital devices and technologies. The #FeedTheirEducation campaign reflects Educo’s education efforts and holistic approach in many of the countries they work in.

The Government of Bangladesh has given the highest priority to implement of sustainable Development programme in an aspiration of global SDG4-leave no one behind”. Finally, aligned with the global spirit, Golam Kibria (Head of Education, Quality Assurance and Compliance, Educo Bangladesh) pointed, “the implementation of SDGs is the state responsibility, but CSO/NGOs and non-state stakeholders have a crucial responsibility to play in terms of financing, monitoring, implementation and progress tracking in changing world this shared planet.”