A top Vatican diplomat has warned the closure of schools during the coronavirus crisis will deepen injustices and inequalities, and urged government action to compensate for the loss of classes by 90 percent of children worldwide.
“This pandemic has highlighted fragilities and fractures in our societies – we have noted its broad impact on schools and academic institutions,” said Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, the Holy See's Permanent Observer to the United Nations and Other International Organisations.
“Covid-19 has directly affected entire families whose parents were constrained to carry out their regular work responsibilities, while having at the same time to adapt their schedules to assist and monitor their children. Not all families are equipped with the necessary information technology tools, nor always capable of making accommodations for the continuous presence of children at home.”
Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Archbishop Jurkovic said education remained a “fundamental enabler” for sustainable development, adding that the right of families, churches and social groups to help shape it had been reaffirmed by the Pope in a 2015 UN General Assembly address.
“Online teaching and learning have played an important role in overcoming this crisis for millions of children – nevertheless, there is still a strong risk of deepening educational inequalities due to unequal access to affordable internet services and equipment,” said the Slovenian diplomat. “The Convention on the Rights of the Child notes that states shall render appropriate assistance to parents in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities, and ensure the development of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children.”
Schools around the world have resorted to online teaching but this obviously disadvantages poorer families who may not be able to afford the technological means for keeping up with better-off classmates.
In Spain, Catholic church leaders have condemned reformist plans by the socialist-led government of premier Pedro Sanchez to withdraw state aid from Catholic and other forms of private education, in a move calculated to affect a quarter of all schools and force many to close.
In his UN Council address, Archbishop Jurkovic said government support for non-state establishments was “critical for guaranteeing an education acceptable and adaptable for all, even during this crisis,” as well as for upholding the bigger picture of personal, moral and social attitudes in the educational process.
“In the present Covid-19 crisis, the fact that many governments refuse to provide funding for such institutions limits the possibilities for children to receive an acceptable and adapted education that takes into account the best interest of the child, as well as the values and religious, cultural and social contexts of the communities in which they live,” the Vatican archbishop added. “Education will be ineffective, and its efforts sterile, if we do not also concern ourselves with implementing a new approach regarding human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature.”
In a UN address last week, Archbishop Jurkovic also renewed Vatican calls for urgent debt relief to ensure poorer, developing countries coped in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
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