Leaving No Child Behind

The threat of COVID-19 to our global healthcare system is unprecedented, but the coronavirus is also precipitating a global education crisis that risks stalling the development of an entire generation.

Although evidence shows that the direct risks COVID-19 poses to the health of children appear to be milder than adults, the virus is still affecting child development by disrupting the education of the vast majority of children and youth around the world.

For decades, the world has faced unprecedented challenges in the education sector, and the onset of COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges with UNICEF reporting over 1.6 billion children out of school at one point or another during the pandemic. These challenges urgently require coordinated action to ensure the well-being and prosperity of the world’s children, making good on the world’s commitment to leave no child behind through the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 - Quality Education.

Global TIES for Children (Global TIES), center based at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU in New York, works on bridging the gap between research, policy, and practice in education and human development. In collaboration with their partners, Global TIES aims to improve child and youth development by using science to inform and guide programs and policies which affect the education and development of children and youth in lowand- middle-income countries and conflict affected areas.

Partnering with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as governments, Global TIES works to bring perspectives from research to the policy-making table. In the face of COVID-19, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, codirector of Global TIES, believes utilizing research and science in decision-making will help move the needle towards achieving SDG 4, ensuring equitable access to education for all children, especially those who need it most. “The already underlying issue of inequitable education in many countries has been exasperated during the pandemic,” Yoshikawa commented.

“We believe that research can make a difference. NGOs and governments are increasingly looking for evidence-informed policies and programs. At Global TIES, we use a variety of research methods and measures to answer the question of what works in education for children in low-and-middle-income countries and conflict affected areas,” he said. Households in these contexts often lack access to the technology that might allow students to engage in distance learning. He said that many households around the world don’t have access to a television, let alone a computer or even a phone connected to the internet.

CROSSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
In lieu of reliable access to an internet-connected device, Yoshikawa recommends that countries assess population accessibility to technology, either through radio or in some contexts, cellphones, to begin implementing distance learning education plans. As the pandemic progresses and the challenges to education in these times abound, we are seeing many countries doing just that. These issues are not unique to low-and-middle-income countries, even in high-income countries, distance learning is proving challenging and more research is needed to see what the effects on children education around the world will be due to prolonged school closures.

When making these distance learning plans, governments should provide not only for academic learning, but also for social and emotional learning (SEL), which includes a broad range of skills such as cooperating with others; regulating thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, especially in stressful situations; and making responsible decisions.

Larry Aber, co-director of Global TIES for Children, said that “social-emotional learning is as critical to future life success as academic learning and is also under threat during the pandemic. The global education community needs to discover and implement practices that effectively promote these skills through distance learning.”