The COVID-19 pandemic: the right to education of children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly generated an unprecedented crisis for the entire world. The most strongly affected region has been Latin America and the Caribbean, which accounts for 18.5% of COVID-19 cases and 30.3% of deaths in the world as of October 2021, while it represents just 8.4% of the total world population. Children and adolescents have not been exempt from the effects, but rather have been particularly hard hit by the reduction in their families’ well-being and income, the forced confinement, the reduction of interpersonal contact, the closure of schools, the loss of their primary or secondary caregivers, the uncertainty and fear and so on. In this edition of the newsletter, the main article analyses the challenges, reversals, and consequences, as well as the opportunities, for secondary education in Latin America and the Caribbean during and after the pandemic. The mental health of those who make up this age group is the focus of Viewpoints. The remaining sections provide resources on positive experiences, documents and research carried out in the past 18 months.

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office (LACRO)

Editorial Committee:
ECLAC:
Alberto Arenas de Mesa, Jorge Rodríguez and Daniela Trucco
UNICEF:
Vincenzo Placco and Claudio Santibáñez Servat
General Coordination:
Daniela Trucco and Daniela Huneeus
Contributors:
Claudio Castillo, Susana Guzmán, Gladys Hauck, Amalia Palma and Laura Rodríguez

Challenges
Number 24, december 2021
ISSN electronic version 1816-7535

© United Nations, December 2021
All rights reserved

Contact:
uniceflac@unicef.org

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