DESPITE the looming threat of the Omicron variant of Covid19, school closures should be avoided whenever possible, the United Nations Children’s Fund said.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore warned that another wave of widespread school closures would be disastrous for children.

“The evidence is clear: Prolonged nationwide school closures; limited resources for students, teachers and parents; and lack of access to remote learning have wiped out decades of progress in education and rendered childhood unrecognizable. A shadow pandemic of child labor, child marriage and mental health issues has taken hold,” Fore said in a statement.

Beyond lost learning, children have also become less safe by being excluded from a school environment, missing out on daily in-person interactions with friends, access to healthcare, and, too often, their only nutritious meal of the day, Fore pointed out.

According to the UN agency, this generation of schoolchildren could collectively lose $17 trillion in potential lifetime earnings.

The UNICEF chief argued that “mitigation measures in schools are effective” and authorities “must use this knowledge to do everything” to keep schools open.

“2022 cannot be yet another year of disrupted learning. It needs to be the year that education, and the best interests of children, take precedence,” Fore said.