write a speech on covid 19 a global pandemic prospects and challenges
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Answer:
I am writing this from lockdown ― India is at the cusp of coronavirus’ third and most deadly stage of community transmission and governments have now called out to citizens to stop all economic activities and isolate themselves. This is clearly crucial. Never before ― at least not in my living memory ― has something this small become so globally life-threatening and so out of control, so quickly.
It was only in January that we got the first real news about the novel virus, which has jumped from animals to humans, and was claiming lives in China. We saw images of forced incarceration; millions of businesses and homes were shut down; hospitals were built overnight; and, it would have seemed that victory was on hand. It was a blip in the global economy and China would bounce back. Business was as usual.
But then, so quickly, the virus moved to make new homes: Italy, where things have completely gone out of control and Iran, where so little is known even today about the sheer extent of toll that this disease has extracted. Now the spread is practically universal; most of the world is in a lockdown mode. It is completely unbelievable.
As I write this, there are 415 coronavirus cases, with nine deaths in India. This pales into insignificance, when you consider that Italy has close to 60,000 cases; or that New York alone has over 16,000 confirmed cases. It is said the cases in India do not represent the true numbers, because testing is limited. But this is where the real question arises.
Itzgirl45❤
Answer:
We are living amidst what is potentially one of the greatest threats in our lifetime to global education, a gigantic educational crisis. As of March 28, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic is causing more than 1.6 billion children and youth to be out of school in 161 countries. This is close to 80% of the world’s enrolled students. We were already experiencing a global leaning crisis, as many students were in school, but were not learning the fundamental skills needed for life. The World Bank’s “Learning Poverty” indicator – the % of children who cannot read and understand at age 10 – stood at 53% of children in low- and middle-income countries – before the outbreak started. This pandemic has the potential to worsen these outcomes even more if we do not act fast.
What should we be worried about in this phase of the crisis that might have an immediate impact on children and youth? (1) Losses in learning (2) Increased dropout rates (3) Children missing their most important meal of the day. Moreover, most countries have very unequal education systems, and these negative impacts will be felt disproportionately by poor children. When it rains, it pours for them.
Learning. Starting the school year late or interrupting it (depending on if they live in the southern or northern hemisphere) completely disrupts the lives of many children, their parents, and teachers. A lot can be done to at least reduce the impact through remote learning strategies. Richer countries are better prepared to move to online learning strategies, although with a lot of effort and challenges for teachers and parents. In middle-income and poorer countries, the situation is very mixed and if we do not act appropriately, the vast inequality of opportunities that exists – egregious and unacceptable to start with – will be amplified. Many children do not have a desk, books, internet connectivity, a laptop at home, or supportive parents. Others do. What we need to avoid – or minimize as much as possible – is for those differences in opportunities to expand and cause the crisis to have an even larger negative effect on poor children’s learning.
Fortunately, we are seeing a lot of creativity in many countries. Rightly so, many ministries of education are worried that relying exclusively on online strategies will imply reaching only children from better-off families. The appropriate strategy in most countries is to use all possible delivery modes with the infrastructure that exists today. Use online tools to assure that lesson plans, videos, tutorials, and other resources are available for some students and probably, most teachers. But also, podcasts and other resources that require less data usage. Working with telecommunication companies to apply zero-rate policies can also facilitate learning material to be downloaded on a smartphone, which more students are likely to have.