THE PANDEMIC has caused “nearly insurmountable” loses in education among children around the world, the United Nations Children’s Education Fund said.

UNICEF said that more than 616 million students were affected by full or partial school closures.

“In March, we will mark two years of Covid19-related disruptions to global education. Quite simply, we are looking at a nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling,” Robert Jenkins, UNICEF chief of education said.

“While the disruptions to learning must end, just reopening schools is not enough.

Students need intensive support to recover lost education. Schools must also go beyond places of learning to rebuild children’s mental and physical health, social development and nutrition,” he added.

Aside from depriving children the chance to acquire basic skills, school closures have impacted their mental health, reduced their access to a regular source of nutrition, and increased their risk to abuse.

The agency said that learning loses due to school closures “left up to 70 percent of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text up from 53 percent pre-pandemic” in countries with low and middle income.

“School dropouts are also a problem: in South Africa, between 400,000 and 500,000 students “reportedly dropped out of school altogether between March 2020 and July 2021,” UNICEF said.

“Finally, in addition to rising levels of anxiety and depression among children and young people linked to the pandemic, school closures also meant more than 370 million children around the world did not get school meals, losing what is for some children the only reliable source of food and daily nutrition,” it added.