Fernando Camacho Servin
Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, March 10, 2022, p. 13
The Covid-19 pandemic generated a catastrophe
in the education sector in Latin America, where more than 150 million children and young people remained without face-to-face classes for almost two years, in addition to especially affecting women, who were the most marginalized sector of the labor market.
The foregoing was affirmed by participants in the last day of activities of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, who struggled to eradicate poverty in the region to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda.
During the discussion, Claudia Uribe, director of the Regional Office of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean, warned that due to the health emergency caused by Covid-19 we are in the midst of the worst education crisis in our history
.
He added that some 170 million children and adolescents were left without face-to-face classes for two full school cycles, and many were also unable to follow their classes remotely, due to the lack of Internet or a computer, which led to an affectation massive, prolonged and deep
in the educational field.
Although the effects of the pandemic on this issue have yet to be quantified, he explained, analyzes by organizations estimate that the number of minors without the basic knowledge to participate productively in society will increase from 53 to 70 percent in the region.
María Noel Vaeza, regional director of UN-Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, stressed that the health emergency also particularly affected the female population, who took on domestic and child care tasks to a much greater extent than men. family that have intensified in recent years.
The head of the National Institute for Women, Nadine Gasman, participated in the forum, who highlighted Mexico’s actions in favor of women and children during the pandemic, such as the delivery of scholarships to students and strategies to prevent adolescent pregnancy.
