Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Five million children out of school in West Africa due to Ebola
By Misha Hussain
Wed Dec 3, 2014 12:40pm EST
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some five million children are out of school in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the deadly Ebola outbreak, according to a report by the Global Business Coalition for Education.
Schools and other public buildings have been closed because they are believed to increase the spread of the virus. Many are now used as holding centers for Ebola patients.
The report, co-written with A World at School, said being out of school can have a crippling impact on vulnerable children, especially girls, who are more likely to face high-risk situations as a result, including early marriage and pregnancy.
If schools are not reopened, the most vulnerable children will become trapped in a cycle of poverty with devastating consequences for their health and economic development, the report said.
"With children out of school indefinitely, Ebola threatens to reverse years of educational progress in west Africa where literacy rates are already low and school systems are only now recovering from years of civil war," U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, said in the report.
...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/03/us-west-africa-health-ebola-idUSKCN0JH20920141203
By Misha Hussain
Wed Dec 3, 2014 12:40pm EST
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some five million children are out of school in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the deadly Ebola outbreak, according to a report by the Global Business Coalition for Education.
Schools and other public buildings have been closed because they are believed to increase the spread of the virus. Many are now used as holding centers for Ebola patients.
The report, co-written with A World at School, said being out of school can have a crippling impact on vulnerable children, especially girls, who are more likely to face high-risk situations as a result, including early marriage and pregnancy.
If schools are not reopened, the most vulnerable children will become trapped in a cycle of poverty with devastating consequences for their health and economic development, the report said.
"With children out of school indefinitely, Ebola threatens to reverse years of educational progress in west Africa where literacy rates are already low and school systems are only now recovering from years of civil war," U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, said in the report.
...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/03/us-west-africa-health-ebola-idUSKCN0JH20920141203