By Todd Finklestone | Director of Operations
At our Gambia program, everyone is hard at work building a new computer lab for the secondary school students! Internet access is crucial to a student's education and overall success in school, and very few students have phones or access to online information at all. According to UNICEF: Two thirds of the world’s school-age children – or 1.3 billion children aged 3 to 17 years old – do not have internet connection in their homes, according to a new joint report from UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Nearly a quarter of a billion students worldwide are still affected by COVID-19 school closures, forcing hundreds of millions of students to rely on virtual learning. For those with no internet access, education can be out of reach. Even before the pandemic, a growing cohort of young people needed to learn foundational, transferable, digital, job-specific and entrepreneurial skills to compete in the 21st century economy. The digital divide is perpetuating inequalities that already divide countries and communities, the report notes. Children and young people from the poorest households, rural and lower income states are falling even further behind their peers and are left with very little opportunity to ever catch up. Which is why we are so excited for this opportunity for students to expand their learning experience!
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