Hundreds of millions of students affected by lengthy closures across continent

Like many Ugandans, public high school agriculture teacher Poscovia Kyobibire was elated when schools reopened on Jan 10, 2021, after almost two years of closure.

The joy of reuniting with her students and resuming work in the school in the country's southwestern Rwampara district was eclipsed, however, by witnessing how serious the impact of COVID-19 had been on the students.

"Many girls have not resumed classes because they either got married, are pregnant or have become mothers," she said.

Kyobibire said some students had used their time away from school to earn good money and as a result were less interested in classes.

The Ugandan school closures, the longest in the world, according to the United Nations, also affected many teachers, especially those employed by private schools, with suspension of their salaries having a significant impact on their livelihoods.

"Most of the private school teachers left the teaching profession to engage in business, farming and other activities," Kyobibire said.

Maryline Nyongesa, whose daughter is a student at Camadui Girls High School in eastern Uganda's Kapchorwa district, said the long closure was frustrating for her child.

"As weeks turned into months and months into a year and counting, my daughter became stressed. She was worried whether she would resume her classes," Nyongesa said.

To ensure that her daughter didn't fall into the trap of early marriage or pregnancy during the long school closure, Nyongesa supervised her child's social behavior and encouraged her to spend more time on books.

In Kenya, the impact of reopening its schools after a nine-month disruption still lingers.

Josiah Mutua, an agriculture and biology secondary school teacher in eastern Kenya's Kitui county, said 237 students resumed classes, but eight girls and four boys dropped out. "The girls dropped out due to pregnancy while the boys indulged in drug abuse and could no longer cope with school," he said.

Lingering impact in Kenya

Mutua said some of the returning students were psychologically affected after losing a parent or guardian to COVID-19. Students' performance also declined significantly due to the closure.

To address the issues, the school has been offering guidance and counseling to students and also introduced remedial classes to improve academic performances, he said.

The Kenyan government, through the Ministry of Education, revised the school calendar with 2021 and 2022 having four school terms instead of the usual three, to recover lost teaching and learning time.

School holidays were shortened from three weeks to one week, however this created a new challenge.

Emily Owira, a Nairobi mother of three and the sole breadwinner in the family, said that although the congested school calendar will help to recover the lost academic year, it will be stressful for parents who need to find more money for additional school fees.

"The one-week break is also too short for parents to adequately prepare … in terms of school fees, shopping and pocket money. It's really stressful," she said.

Owira lost her job early last year due to the impact of COVID-19 and has been running a small business. She asked her son to delay starting college as she is struggling to support the school education of her other two children.

Wider problem

Just like Kenya and Uganda, many countries across Africa face similar challenges.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, school closures have affected around 250 million students in sub-Saharan Africa. This is in addition to the 100 million children who were not in school before the pandemic.

Data from the United Nations Children's Fund indicates that 400,000 to 500,000 students dropped out of school in South Africa between March 2020 and July 2021.Schoolchildren are also one academic year behind.

On Jan 11, before the opening of the academic year, Angie Motshekga, South Africa's minister of basic education, expressed concerns about the rate of pregnancy among girls aged 10-19, and said education authorities will step up efforts to prevent student pregnancies.

The measures will give students the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about their health and sexuality, prevent HIV infection and pregnancy, and focus on their education, she said.

In his remarks to mark the International Day of Education on Jan 24, Robert Jenkins, the chief of education at UNICEF, said reopening schools was not enough without support measures for students. "Students need intensive support to recover lost education. Schools must also go beyond (being) places of learning to rebuild children's mental and physical health, social development and nutrition," he said.