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Impact of Covid-19-related school closures on women and girls

By Unknown

On 14 March 2020, as a measure to curb the spread of COVID-19, all schools and educational institutions in Afghanistan were closed. More than 9.5 million children in public schools and 500,000 children enrolled in community-based education classes, in addition to the 3.7 million out-of-school children in Afghanistan, have now been out of school for nearly seven months. 

On 22 August 2020, government schools across the country reopened for grades 12-7. Private schools were permitted to re-open for grades 12-1. The fact that private school students already have greater access to education than students in government schools is just one indication of the deepening inequalities that are likely to be a widespread consequence of the pandemic.

School closures and disruption of education due to the COVID-19 health crisis have already harmed many children in Afghanistan by further weakening their already tenuous access to education. The pandemic coincides with an often worsening and unpredictable security situation and ongoing armed conflict, and concerns that already declining donor funding could fall further in the wake of COVID-19. The health crisis is compounding existing vulnerabilities and inequalities, further limiting access to education for children who were already marginalized.

Children who were not studying will be less likely to be able to do so, and many children whose schools closed will be a risk of not being able to return to studying. The crisis is likely diverting critical and already scarce resources away from the education system in ways that will have long-term consequences and will set back progress toward making education universally accessible and compulsory for all children. 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to education poses one of the biggest threats not only to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 of quality education for all globally by 2030, but also the realization of all other human rights and all 17 SDGs in Afghanistan.

These harms will disproportionately affect girls, especially girls who are marginalized in other ways, including due to disability, because they are IDPs or returnees, or because they are among the three- quarters of the population living in rural areas.

It is critical to continue to invest in education and to ensure access to inclusive education for all children, which will support development and peace efforts in the short and long term. COVID-19 will have long-lasting effects on the realization of women’s right to equal opportunities to thrive in public life in Afghanistan, and on gender equality, development and peace in the country as a whole. 

It is critical to halt declines in the number of girls studying and prevent the COVID-19 crisis from driving new declines in women and girls’ participation in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

When schools and CBE reopen, the fragile education system in Afghanistan will have to grapple with three additional challenges: reenrolment of children, particularly girls, into the schools; remediation for lost learning time; and the likely resurgence of COVID-19 during the cold season. The situation in cold climate provinces where schools are normally closed from end of November until end of March will pose its own challenges

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