New Delhi, Nov 14, : , Indian children are already losing educational opportunities.We cannot wait for them to be vaccinated so that schools can reopen, Yasumasa, UNICEF India representative, said.
In an interview to IANS as UNICEF India unveiled a symbolic ‘pandemic classroom’ on the occasion of the Children’s Day on Sunday, Kimura said that it has been more than 15 months that children have lost the learning opportunity and the future of an entire generation is at risk.Kimura stated that UNICEF India had unveiled a symbolic ‘pandemic classroom’ to mark the Children’s Day.Kimura also said that the children have been losing the opportunity to learn for more than 15 months and that the future of a whole generation is in danger.
Following are excerpts from the interview:.Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Q: What is the idea behind behind the empty ‘pandemic classroom’ that you want to convey?.Q: What’s the point of the empty “pandemic classroom” that you are trying to communicate?
A: We are advocating ‘learning recovery and learning loss’ for children in India on this World Children’s Day on November 20.A: On the World Children’s Day, November 20, we are calling for ‘learning recovery’ and ‘learning loss’ in India.Children have lost huge opportunities of learning in last 15 months during the pandemic.The pandemic has robbed children of huge learning opportunities in the last 15 months.
Total 286 million children have lost the opportunities of learning.The total number of children who have lost their learning opportunities is 286 million.
So, we want to bring public attention to this learning crisis through empty classes, desks, chairs, and unused bags.We want to raise public awareness about this learning crisis by empty classrooms, desks, chairs, and bags that aren’t used.
Q: What has UNICEF done for children during the pandemic in India?.Q: What did UNICEF do for children in India during the pandemic?
A: We have worked very closely with national and state governments during the pandemic.A: During the pandemic, we worked closely with both national and state governments.We have worked with the Education Ministry to come up with guidelines and protocol to safe openings of schools for children.
We worked closely with the Education Ministry to develop guidelines and protocols to ensure safe opening of schools for children.UNICEF has worked towards providing assistance to children in online learning in many states.
UNICEF has been working towards helping children learn online in many countries.Our mobile learning centres visited the community where students didn’t have mobiles for online education and provided them support.
Mobile learning centres provided support and visited communities where students did not have access to online education via their mobile devices.We worked in Bihar, Odisha, and other states to provide community support to those students with mobile learning.
To provide support for mobile learners in the community, we worked in Odisha and Bihar.
Q: The Central government is set to roll out the vaccination programme for children.Q: The Central government will soon roll out the vaccine programme for children.Is UNICEF working towards vaccine hesitancy in children?.Is UNICEF working to reduce vaccine hesitancy among children?
A: Since the launch of immunisation programme by government in India, we have been supporting the Health Ministry’s advocacy campaign for children vaccines.A: We have supported the Health Ministry’s advocacy campaign to get vaccines for children since the inception of the immunisation program by the Indian government.Whenever the vaccination programme begins for children in India, we are ready to support the Health Ministry in its campaign.We are available to help the Health Ministry with its campaign whenever the Indian vaccination program begins for children.
Q: We are still into the pandemic and children in India have not been vaccinated yet but Unicef is advocating reopening the schools.Q: The pandemic is still ongoing in India and the children have not been vaccinated yet.Unicef advocates reopening schools.Don’t you think it a contradictory?.Is it not contradictory?
A: There are evidences that children are not the cause of the outbreak of infection and they are less like to become the cluster of infection.A: Evidence suggests that children are not responsible for the spread of infection.They are also less likely to be infected.It has also been proved that they recover quickly if they get infected.They also recover quickly from infection.We can’t wait until children are vaccinated to open the schools.
To open schools, we can’t wait for children to be vaccinated.They are already losing the learning opportunity.
They are already losing the opportunity to learn.With proper Covid appropriate behaviour like social distancing, hand sanitisation, ventilation in classrooms, we can prevent the infection.
We can stop the spread of infection by using proper Covid behavior like hand washing, social distancing and ventilation in classrooms.It is important to bring them (the children) back to the classroom.
It is crucial to bring them back to school.
Q:.Has the pandemic-brought economic slow down impacted Unicef programmes too?.Q:.Has the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic affected Unicef programs too?
A: Absolutely, it has impacted UNICEF during the second wave.A: Yes, UNICEF was affected by the virus during the second wave.Many of our staff were infected during the second wave.Many of our staff became infected during this second wave.
However, we managed to keep running the programme.We were able to continue running the program.
In terms of financial impact, we didn’t face any crisis to run the programmee.We didn’t have to face financial difficulties in order to continue the programe.
We received significant contribution and support domestically and overseas to run the programmes.To run the programs, we received substantial support and contributions from both domestic and international sources.
(Avinash Prabhakar can be reached at [email protected]).(Avinash Prabhakar may be reached at [email protected]).
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