COVID-19 Crisis, Impacts on Catholic Schools, and Potential Responses | Part II: Developing Countries with Focus on Sub-Saharan Africa

In developing countries as in developed countries, the COVID-19 crisis has led to near universal school closures that will affect children’s ability to learn, especially in countries with limited infrastructure for distance learning. While most children are likely to return to school when they reopen, quite a few may drop out. In addition, the economic recession generated by the crisis will affect livelihoods, leading to higher rates of poverty and food insecurity. This also may have negative impacts on both Catholic schools and their students. This paper, the second in a set of two, looks at likely impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on Catholic Schools in developing countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, a vulnerable region given the comparatively weak performance of its education systems and the limited availability of resources for governments to protect education budgets (acknowledging that many Catholic schools in the region are public schools). How Catholic schools will be able to respond to the twin challenges of school closures and the economic downturn may affect their comparative advantage for the medium term. A key aim of the paper is to make Catholic school teachers and leaders aware of some of the discussions on how to respond to the crisis, and provide links to resources online that may be useful