THE EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON EDUCATION
When discussing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of the educational life of the students should not be overlooked. Although we do not have the statistics associated with this problem today, awareness can be raised to take precautions before the problem arises and it will be lifesaving.
In Turkey, as of March 23, 2020, education was switched to online training within the framework of measures against Covid-19. According to the Ministry of National Education 2018–2019 academic year data, the total number of students is around 18 million. Among these students, there may be students who do not have access to distance education or who cannot participate in this education because their environmental conditions do not allow them.
Staying away from school life may result in harmful consequences to the students, especially in the less privileged and less educated communities, where some students will eventually be disconnected from school life, drop out of school, and their lives will move in a completely different direction. For disadvantaged groups and students with disabilities, this danger can increase exponentially.
This is envisaged as a potential problem not only for our country but also for the world.
In order for the subject to not negatively affect the lives of students, there are duties that fall on both relevant institutions and civil society:
1- To monitor whether the girls attend school before and after the pandemic, to collect the data on this issue meticulously,
2- To draw attention to the issue starting today to make sure that the educational life of children, especially girls, after the pandemic is uninterrupted, starting an awareness campaign,
3- Thirdly, to cooperate with our partner international institutions and to transfer relevant statistics data around the world.
According to the report of the CCSA- Committee for the Statistical Activities;
We are facing a situation that affects 1 billion 600 thousand students worldwide. On the basis of age groups, 155 million pre-school education, 691 million primary schools, 537 million secondary schools and 191 million higher and equivalent school students are listed. According to the same research, 826 million students do not have access to computers.
In a quarter of the world’s countries, this pandemic preceded the beginning of the school year, affecting almost a year of students’ education. It is inevitable that the SDG 4- Quality Education target, which is the 4th of the Sustainable Development Goals, will be negatively affected.
According to the same report, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) requests data from governments to measure the short, medium and long-term effects of the crisis and helps governments to minimize the impact of the crisis on national education. Students’ deficiencies need to be eliminated and their losses compensated.
At the end of this process;
• No child should be deprived of educational life due to the Covid-19 pandemic,
• Education should continue from where it left off without leaving any child behind.
Fatma Aytaç
June 6, 2020
