18.6bn hours lost in education to COVID-19 lockdown ― UNICEF official

AT least, more than 18.6 billion hours that could be used for teaching and learning in schools were lost to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown globally, an official of United Nation’s Children’s Fund has revealed.

UNICEF Communication Specialist, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, made this known on Wednesday in Enugu, at a two-day media dialogue on-demand creation for COVID-19 vaccines. The event was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

Njoku also said the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and asked Nigerians to dismiss all the myths and conspiracy theories making the rounds to make people believe that the vaccines are harmful for human use.

He noted that education was worst affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, which UNICEF had also estimated that schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

Njoku said: “Over 18.6 billion hours were lost in education due to lockdowns globally.”

According to data released by UNICEF around 214 million children globally – or 1 in 7 – have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning.

The analysis on school closures report notes that 14 countries worldwide have remained largely closed from March 2020 to February 2021, while two-thirds of those countries are in Latin America and the Caribbean, affecting nearly 98 million schoolchildren.

Njoku while writing off conspiracy theories associated with the COVID-19 vaccines, said vaccination remains one of the best ways to eradicate the pandemic, adding that conspiracy theories exist all over the world, but in most cases, they are not backed by empirical evidence.

Also speaking, Dr Femi Oluyemi, Health Specialist and Officer in Charge of UNICEF Enugu Field Office, said though considerable progress is being made by the Federal Government of Nigeria, UNICEF and other development agencies to ensure the spread of COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control through the importation of vaccines and accessibility to vaccines, serious challenges were being faced in the areas of public’s hesitancy, unwillingness and conspiracies against the COVID-19 vaccines, making efforts of government, partners and donors unreciprocated.

On the role being played by the media, he said: “UNICEF and partners recognize the active role media has continued to play right from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring correct and timely messages about the pandemic is disseminated to the public while at the same time, enabling rapid and widespread reach of public health information.

“We have continued to see an upward trend for the promotion of health and hygiene practices by media in Nigeria, by daily communication to the public of protocols enforced by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19, reinforcement of useful messages on safe health practices such as increased hand washing, use of face coverings, and social distancing,” he said.

Dr Obasi Chikezie of the Community Medicine Department of Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUT), in his presentation at the event, debunked the rumours against the COVID-19 vaccines, warned against the third wave of the pandemic, he said could be mitigated if people are fully vaccinated.

He noted that the new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 26th September 2021 in Nigeria was 255, adding that the following day Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported 296 confirmed new cases.

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