BEVERLY HILLS, December 15, (THEWILL) – The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF on Tuesday urged priority access for teachers to the COVID-19 vaccine.
A statement by the Agency Executive Director, Henrietta Fore said teachers should be “prioritized to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, once frontline health personnel and high-risk populations are vaccinated.”
She said; “the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on children’s education around the globe. Vaccinating teachers is a critical step towards putting it back on track.
“This will help protect teachers from the virus, allow them to teach in person, and ultimately keep schools open.”
According to UNICEF, at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic at the end of April, “school closures disrupted the learning of almost 90 per cent of students worldwide.”
We must “do everything in our power to safeguard the future of the next generation. This begins by safeguarding those responsible for opening that future up for them,” Fore said.
“The consequences of extended, missed or impaired education are steep, especially for the most marginalized. The longer children remain out of school, the less likely they are to return, and the more difficult it is for their parents to resume work”, she added.
