Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: The COVID-19 “pandemic is making a global childcare crisis even worse,” Henrietta Fore, head of the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), warned. Fore’s remark came after the release of a UN study that shows at least 40 million children have missed out on early childhood education due to measures to combat COVID-19.
The research brief, published on Tuesday, looks at the state of childcare and early childhood education globally, and includes an analysis of the significant disruption from the widespread closures of these vital family services due to the pandemic.
The shutdowns have also left many parents struggling to balance childcare and paid employment, a situation that is placing a larger burden on women who, on average, spend more than three times longer on care and housework than men. In poorer countries, the closures have made life even harder for many families with young children.
