Category: Literacy

Researchers in South Africa have discovered that people who have been infected with the omicron variant of the coronavirus develop enhanced immunity to the older delta variant.

The conclusion is the result of a new study conducted at Durban-based Africa Health Research Institute involving 33 vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The scientists found that immunity against a further exposure to omicron rose 14-fold about two weeks after infection, while also discovering that immunity against delta improved 4.4-fold.

The scientists say the immunity is especially enhanced among those who are inoculated.

Alex Sigal, the study’s co-author, said on Twitter Monday that if omicron is “less pathogenic” as it appears, “then this will help push delta out,” making it possible

“the disruption Covid-19 has caused in our lives may become less.”

The study, which has not been peer reviewed, has been submitted to the medical journal MedRxiv.

An earlier study out of South Africa revealed a reduced risk of hospitalization and severe illness from omicron, compared to delta.

The omicron strain has rapidly spread around the world since it was first detected in southern Africa in November.

Source: Voice of America

More than 400 million South Asian children have been affected by school closures extending into a second year in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic according to a new UNICEF report.

The United Nations agency has urged the region’s countries to fully reopen schools, warning that the consequences of lost learning are huge and will be long-lasting in a region where access to remote learning is limited.

“The remarkable achievements our region has made in advancing child rights over recent decades are now at risk,” said George Laryea-Adjei, UNICEF regional director for South Asia.

“If we fail to act, the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for decades to come,” he said.

School closures in South Asia have lasted longer than in many other parts of the world with schools remaining fully closed on an average for nearly 32 weeks between March 2020 and August this year, according to the report.

In Bangladesh, schools were shut for 18 months, until September, one of the longest closures in the world. In countries such as India and Nepal they have only partially reopened.

The transition to remote learning has been difficult in a region where many houses do not have internet connectivity and where access to smartphones is limited – an earlier study showed that in India for example nearly half of the students between ages 6 and 13 reported not using any type of remote learning during school closures.

Many teachers also found they lacked the training to make remote learning work effectively, according to UNICEF.

The loss of learning happened in a region where many children were already lagging.

Citing examples, the report said that one study in India showed that the proportion of third grade children who could read a first grade level text fell from around 42% in 2018 to 24% in 2020.

It said girls were at a particular disadvantage because they had more limited access to mobile devices and were under increased pressure to perform domestic work.

There have been some successes – in Sri Lanka and Bhutan the distribution of published material to continue out-of-school learning helped children keep up with their studies.

UNICEF has called on countries to prioritize helping students catch up on the learning they have missed, pointing out that South Asia is home to more adolescents than any other part of the world and will need 21st century skills to gain a foothold in a region where jobs remain scarce.

The report also flagged concerns about the disruption of health services such as regular immunization drives due to the pandemic. It said that key actions are needed to “reverse the alarming rollback in child health and nutrition.”

The report said that the picture in South Asia remains bleak compared to developed countries, where more people are immunized, and economies are recovering.

Only 30% of South Asians are fully vaccinated, the report said, “and as the region braces itself for future waves of the virus, more children and families are slipping into poverty.”

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON — On Thursday, fewer than 2,000 of the 14,000 students enrolled at the University of Buea showed up for class, a day after about a dozen students were injured when police say someone set off an explosive device at the school in western Cameroon.

The governor of Cameroon’s southwest region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, urged everyone to return, saying the military has been deployed to protect students and staff members.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the government blames separatist groups. Buea is an English-speaking town in Cameroon’s southwest region. Government troops and separatists have been fighting each other in the region since 2017, when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority. The military reacted with a crackdown and separatist groups took up weapons, saying they want the western regions to be an independent country.

Horace Ngomo Manga, the vice chancellor of the University of Buea, said the IED exploded at the school’s amphitheater on Wednesday evening.

“So far, we have one male student and eleven female students at the solidarity clinic, where they are following up treatment,” he said. “The students are being carried one by one for X-rays for further investigations into the depth of their injuries.”

The military said that last month, separatists warned all schools and universities in Buea to seal their doors but gave no further explanation.

Bilai said students should not be intimidated by the explosion, and that education is crucial to the country’s future and must be allowed to continue without interruption.

“We must bear in mind that we are dealing with the education of our children who are the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. “I therefore expect everyone to support the educational sector by denouncing any form of disorder which could disrupt the smooth functioning of our schools.”

However, some on campus are uneasy after the explosion. Ekane Manga, a lecturer at the university, said the presence of soldiers on campus may have invited fighters to attack the institution.

“There should be coordination amidst the ranks of the soldiers because having people with guns around students is not the best thing,” he told VOA.

Separatists in Cameroon have attacked and closed hundreds of schools in recent years, but authorities say this is the first time they have set off an IED at a university.

Source: Voice of America

A homemade bomb thrown through the roof of a university lecture hall wounded 11 students on Wednesday, the vice chancellor said, in an English-speaking region of Cameroon in the grip of a bloody separatist conflict.

University of Buea vice-chancellor Horace Ngomo Manga said “the device fell to the ground and exploded.”

One boy and 10 girls were wounded, he told state radio CRTV, adding that all were in a stable condition.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the bomb or who might have thrown it.

Buea is the capital of Cameroon’s Southwest region. Both the Southwest and Northwest regions are mainly English-speaking in the otherwise predominantly French-speaking central African country.

A decades-long campaign by militants to redress perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority flared into a declaration of independence on October 1, 2017, sparking a crackdown by security forces.

The conflict has claimed more than 3,500 lives and forced 700,000 people to flee their homes, according to NGO estimates that have not been updated in more than a year despite an escalation in violence in recent months.

The United Nations and international organizations regularly denounce abuses and crimes committed against civilians by both sides.

Wednesday’s bombing has not been claimed, but the anglophone separatists have regularly attacked schools and universities that they accuse of favoring French-language education.

The separatists have also recently ramped up attacks on the country’s armed forces using improvised explosive devices.

In September, a Buea court sentenced four men to death over the killing of seven schoolchildren a year earlier, however Human Rights Watch called the trial a sham.

Source: Voice of America

NATO is studying options to bolster support for the multinational G5 Sahel Joint Force in the troubled three-borders region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where a surge in jihadis violence has cost thousands of lives, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter seen by AFP on Thursday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization could extend such support through its Support and Procurement Agency, the U.N. chief said in a recent letter to the Security Council.

Guterres said he is convinced of the need to create a U.N. support office for the G5 Sahel force, which comprises around 5,000 soldiers from Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, which would be funded by contributions from the United Nations.

He said such a technique would be “the most effective approach to provide sustainable and predictable support to the Joint Force.”

But the United States, the U.N.’s biggest financial backer, has so far rejected the plan, which is favored by France and several African countries.

In June, U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Jeffrey DeLaurentis said his country wanted to maintain a clear separation between efforts to fight terrorism and efforts to maintain peace in order to protect the U.N.’s neutrality.

For years, the United States has said it prioritizes aid to the Sahel countries directly, rather than ramping up U.N. involvement.

“The creation of the G5 Sahel Joint Force, despite the persisting challenges, is a strong manifestation of political will by the five core states of the Sahel that merits the support of the international community,” Guterres said.

“While all interlocutors underscored their strong support to the G5 Sahel Joint Force as an exceptional initiative that warranted international support, there is no convergence of views within the international community on how best to support it,” the U.N. chief added.

The Security Council, currently led by Kenya, is set to send representatives for a visit to Mali and Niger at the end of the month, to study the security situation.

Guterres pointed out that despite the African Union’s willingness to take on an integral role in fostering cooperation in the region, “the AU stressed that it would require financial support by another donor” to manage logistical support of the Joint Force.

The U.N. currently provides fuel, water and food to the Joint Force through the Minusma peace-keeping mission in Mali, plus bilateral medical support arranged in the last few years.

Source: Voice of America

The U.N. Children’s Fund in Nigeria said at least 1 million Nigerian children could miss school this year because of insecurity, as schools in the north of the country have been targeted by armed groups in a series of mass kidnappings for ransom.

UNICEF Nigeria said Wednesday the country had recorded 20 school attacks this year alone, and 1,436 students have been abducted. The report also showed that 16 students have been killed, and 200 remain missing.

As schools across the country began opening this week for a new semester, more than 37 million students are due back at schools.

But officials reported low attendance in attack-prone areas like north central Kaduna state. In the capital, authorities pushed back the resumption date to September 19 without giving a reason.

In the UNICEF report, country representative Peter Hawkins urged Nigerian authorities to prioritize security at schools, stating it was unacceptable for communities to be worried to send their children to school over fears they will be abducted.

Emmanuel Hwande, spokesperson at Nigerian Union of Teachers, said the government must take responsibility.

“We want the government to take actions, actions that will see that the security agencies respond properly to incidents of kidnapping, incidents of abduction where we’ll see them actively involved, actively engaging such criminal elements,” Hwande said.

Ransom-seeking criminal gangs began targeting schools in northern Nigeria late last year. Amnesty international says hundreds of schools there have been closed as a result.

Abuja resident Florence Ulo is scared about sending her five-year-old son back to school.

“Even me that is in the city, and of course my son’s school is not far from the house and they have security, but I still don’t feel comfortable,” she said. “The thought of that they can go into a school and abduct children is very scary for a parent.”

Last year, the coronavirus pandemic set back school calendars and disrupted learning for millions of students in Nigeria. UNICEF’s Hawkins said the situation has worsened “with the additional challenge of school closures due to prevailing insecurity across the country.”

He said that while countries worldwide, including Nigeria, have taken action to provide remote learning, many students are not being reached.

He said UNICEF joined a global “digital freeze” of social media Thursday to protest the inability of children around the world to access classrooms, and that unless mitigation measures are implemented, the World Bank estimates a loss of $10 trillion U.S. dollars in earnings over time for the present generation of students globally.

Source: Voice of America