In a bid to complete one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Education), the Rotary Club of Falomo (District 9110 of Nigeria) has refurbished dilapidated windows, doors, and sideboards, among others at the St Georges Girls’ Primary School in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
The writer is chair, Department of English (Graduate Studies) at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad.
WE are already into the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Delta variant has been declared by leading medical experts as the fastest, the fittest and the most formidable version of the coronavirus. What’s next is yet to be seen. What’s known is that far from being over, the pandemic is hitting us harder than before. One of the casualties is education, especially at the primary, middle and tertiary level.
With over 1.5 billion learners impacted worldwide due to school closures in 192 countries, the educational crisis caused by Covid-19 may worsen as the Delta variant spreads. The matter poses a greater challenge to low-income countries such as Pakistan, where, according to Unesco, 22.8 million children, aged five to 16 years, do not attend school. The staggering figure equals 41 per cent of this age group in Pakistan.