CAPE TOWN, Sep 22 (Xinhua/APP): The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday called on governments, parents, and teachers across Eastern and Southern Africa to urgently and safely re-open schools, as the costs of continued school closures escalate across the region. Across this region, of the nearly 65 million children remaining out of school, around one in two are not reached by any form of learning, while millions of children continue to miss what was their one nutritious meal of the day, according to UNICEF. “Seven months into the pandemic, we must be very clear about the gravity of this crisis: we are at risk of losing a generation,” said Mohamed Malick Fall, Regional Director for UNICEF in Eastern and Southern Africa. “We see lost learning, rising violence, rising child labor, forced child marriages, teen pregnancies, and diminished nutrition.” A generation of children is at risk, and at the most critical time in the continent’s history, Fall lamented. As the region is experiencing unprecedented population growth, it’s important that this expanded workforce can receive quality learning at school so as to ensure that the potential for increased production could sustain an economic boom to drastically reduce poverty in Africa – … Continue reading UNICEF urges re-opening of schools in Eastern, Southern Africa