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COVID-19 widens learning gap for girls

COVID-19 widens learning gap for girls

JAMILA AKWELEY OKERTCHIRI Seventeen-year-old Muniratu Adams, a form two student of the Jeyiri D/A Junior High School at Funsi in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region of Ghana, is fortunate to have returned to school this January after the long COVID-19 shutdown. Ghana’s education sector was one of the hardest affected by the pandemic and for many girls, particularly those in rural areas, the consequences of school closures means many will never return to their schooling. “It was difficult for me to come back to school,” she tells IPS. “When I was home, I did not think…
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Spurred by COVID-19, African schools innovate to close learning gap

Spurred by COVID-19, African schools innovate to close learning gap

NELLIE PEYTON and KIM HARRISBERG IN rural Sierra Leone, teenagers tuned into solar-powered radios for their lessons, while Kenyan students texted a code to receive free learning guides on their phones. As COVID-19 shut Africa's schools, governments and charities rushed to make learning accessible to millions of pupils without internet or even electricity, sparking innovations that could keep children learning long after the pandemic has passed. "The situation... pushed all the governments and education ministries to think in a different way," said Elena Locatelli, an advisor on education in emergencies at the U.N. children's agency UNICEF. In a matter of…
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