Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has projected that the COVID-19 pandemic might result in a decline in aid to global education.
This was contained in a policy paper presented by UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report.
According to the UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, it is estimated that global aid is likely to decline by up to US$2 billion as a result of the recession caused by COVID-19.
“This means that without new measures, aid to education would only reach 2018 levels in 2024, which poses a serious threat to the recovery of education from the unprecedented disruption caused by the pandemic.
“Just as aid to education seemed to have recovered its lost momentum, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to take us back several years,” Azoulay stated.
Azoulay stated further that Covid-19 had impacted economy globally. She stressed that aid to education would be more important than ever before.
“Countries will need additional funding to respond to the pandemic and education must be prioritised both in terms of aid and domestic allocations to avoid a setback to our global education goal, SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) 4,” she added.
