10m children ‘may never return to school’ after pandemic

LONDON, July 13 (Xinhua): Some 9.7 million children worldwide "could be forced out of school forever" by the end of this year, as a result of increasing poverty and budget cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

London-headquartered charity Save the Children made the warning on Monday.

In 12 countries, mainly in West and Central Africa but also including Yemen and Afghanistan, children are at extremely high risk of not going back to school after the lockdowns are lifted, while in another 28 countries, they are at high or moderate risk, the charity said in a report published on its website.

Lockdown measures during the pandemic saw a peak of 1.6 billion children out of school globally, according to the report.

Calling this an unprecedented education emergency, Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, said: "We know the poorest, most marginalized children who were already the furthest behind have suffered the greatest loss."