New UNICEF-ITU report says 15 % of Georgia’s school-age children have no internet access at home

By Khatia Bzhalava

Thursday, December 3

UNICEF representative in Georgia Ghassan Khalil: “Lack of connectivity prevents children and young people from competing in the modern economy.”

According to the report, around 661 500 schoolchildren rely on virtual learning in Georgia, as a result of the closure of schools due to the pandemic.

According to the new joint report of The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and UNICEF, 15 percent of school-age children in Georgia do not have internet connection in their homes. The report How Many Children and Youth Have Internet Access at Home? Notes that globally two-third of school-age children do not have access to the internet. Similarly, 759 million (63%) young people between ages 15 and 25, do not have internet access at home. The press release is published by UNICEF Georgia.

According to the report, the closure of schools in Georgia due to the COVID pandemic has affected about 661 500 children, who had to shift to virtual learning mode. For those who do not have access to the internet, education can be out of reach. The press release reads that yet before the pandemic, there was a growing number of young people in need of learning fundamental, transferable, digital, job-specific, and entrepreneurial skills to be competitive in the 21st-century economy.

“Lack of connectivity prevents children and young people from competing in the modern economy… It isolates them from the world. And in the event of school closures, such as those currently experienced due to COVID-19, it causes them to lose out on education,” said UNICEF representative in Georgia Ghassan Khalil.

According to UNICEF, globally, 58 percent of school-age children from the wealthiest households have an internet connection at home, compared with 16 percent of children from the most impoverished countries. A similar disparity exists in terms of the income of the countries. In low-income countries, less than one in twenty school-age children have internet access at home, compared with data of higher-income countries, where almost 9 in ten children access the internet.

The report reads that children and young people from disadvantaged households, villages, and lower-income countries are falling further behind from their peers and are left with very little opportunity to resolve the challenge.