Remote Schooling : 463 Million Children Worldwide Had No means to access remote education. This is the finding presented by UNICEF in its report The Remote Learning Reachability. While there are significant disparities between the 101 countries that implemented lockdowns, there are also significant disparities within the same country. The conclusion, recently confirmed by the OECD, is that COVID-19 has not spared education.

Poor Children : The Primary Excluded from Remote Learning

Global Scale :

• 463 million children worldwide did not have access to remote learning out of 1.5 billion students affected by school closures.
• 72% of the students who were unable to participate in remote learning live in the poorest households in their countries.
• 75% of the students who could not access remote learning live in rural areas.

The Main Reason: Lack of Remote Learning Policies and Home Equipment

UNICEF states that if 463 million children had no opportunity to access schooling, it is mainly due to the absence of remote learning policies and the lack of necessary equipment for home-based education. Moreover, this figure is likely underestimated as it reflects the number of children potentially affected, which is an optimal scenario. Many other factors can prevent a child from participating in remote learning, such as being confined in an environment that is not conducive to learning.

France, Far from being an exception

Key figures :

• 5% of students in the national education system do not have a computer at home.
• 13% of middle school students in REP (priority education networks) do not have computers at home.
• 24.3% of parents from modest backgrounds consider their computer equipment and internet access insufficient to meet the needs of schoolwork at home.
• 800,000 students were “lost track of” by April 1st, even as the lockdown was set to continue for another five weeks.

Break Poverty takes action

This situation cannot go unanswered, especially since France is one of the OECD countries where the link between socio-economic status and school performance is the strongest. For students with the same skills, the risk of dropping out is higher for a child from a disadvantaged background.

Break Poverty has therefore decided to launch the “Digital inclusion drive” program, which will provide each beneficiary with a computer, internet access, and academic support for one year to disadvantaged youth at risk of dropping out.

Through this initiative, “Digital inclusion drive” operation aims to support disadvantaged students who have experienced a partial or total break with the school environment due to the lockdown; anticipate a high-risk school year with new concerns about the return to remote learning; and prevent a lost generation by addressing the needs of youth at risk of dropping out.

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[1] En français, “l’accessibilité de l’enseignement à distance”.

[2] D’après le rapport « Regards sur l’éducation 2020 », les indicateurs de l’OCDE

[3] D’après l’Education Nationale

[4] Enquête « Le numérique chez les collégiens scolarisés en réseau d’éducation prioritaire » de l’AFEV (menée en 2016 auprès de 548 jeunes collégiens scolarisés en réseau d’éducation prioritaire (REP)

[5] Enquête « l’école à la maison » de Romain Delès, et Filippo Pirone (menée depuis le 2 avril auprès des parents d’élèves/à ce jour : 30 000 réponses)

[6] D’après l’Education Nationale

Photo credits : Maria Symchych / Shutterstock.