Minister: Schools have special role to promote gender equality

EDUCATION Minister Jimmy Uguro says schools have a special role to promote gender equality and give opportunities to disadvantaged groups to ensure no one is left behind.
Speaking at the 41st United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) meeting in France on Monday, he said the Coronavirus (Covid-19) had affected schools in Papua New Guinea and about 2.4 million students had experienced disrupted learning during the country’s lockdown measures to avoid the spread of the virus.
Uguro said students across the country had lost valuable hours of instruction and were slow to return to the classrooms due to the fear of contracting the virus.
Social media and fake news were not helping in the fight to contain and

mitigate the pandemic, he said.
The meeting brought together relevant stakeholders and development partners to deliberate on commitments of efforts for the continuation of education during emergency periods and they agreed for the use of information communication technology as a key strategy in delivering undisrupted education in the region.
Uguro asked for increased collaboration and partnership by all sectors and for all Unesco member states to ensure they did not exacerbate challenges, but strengthened and developed resilience to progress their sustainable development goal four.