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The COVID-19 pandemic: the right to education of children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean

13 December 2021|Newsletter Edition

unicef-colegio-mayor11.jpg

Niño en el colegio con mascarilla mostrando un cuaderno
© UNICEF Chile/2020/E. González

Editorial

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly generated an unprecedented crisis for the entire world. The most strongly affected region has been Latin America and the Caribbean, which accounts for 18.5% of COVID-19 cases and 30.3% of deaths in the world as of October 2021, while it represents just 8.4% of the total world population. Children and adolescents have not been exempt from the effects, but rather have been particularly hard hit by the reduction in their families’ well-being and income, the forced confinement, the reduction of interpersonal contact, the closure of schools, the loss of their primary or secondary caregivers, the uncertainty and fear and so on. In this edition of the newsletter, the main article analyses the challenges, reversals, and consequences, as well as the opportunities, for secondary education in Latin America and the Caribbean during and after the pandemic. The mental health of those who make up this age group is the focus of Viewpoints. The remaining sections provide resources on positive experiences, documents and research carried out in the past 18 months.

Article Selection

Insights

Challenges and opportunities for secondary education in Latin America and the Caribbean during and after the pandemic

The pandemic has had a critical impact on the educational trajectories of children and adolescents in Latin America. Video-call interviews with more than 150 students, teachers, and parents in eight countries in the region (namely, Argentina, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, and Uruguay) in 2020 and 2021 reveal the challenges and opportunities faced in the transition to remote and online education during lockdown.