COVID-19 Outbreak and School Dropout; A Worldwide Challenge for an Equitable Future

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most major global health crises around the world. This outbreak has impacted all socio-economic and cultural dimensions of life (1). One of the affected domains is education from preschool to university. By March, 49 countries, including China, France, Iran, and Japan closed their schools to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 (2). This phenomenon has raised major concerns due to its short-term and long-term negative outcomes. As far as short-term results are concerned, deprivation of many students from attending classes and, more importantly, inequality in access to virtual classes for low economic societies would be concerning. In the long run, reduced economic growth and social skills, inequity in the level of education, inequitable job opportunities, and many other negative socio-cultural outcomes would be of importance (3, 4).