Three-quarters of the world’s children live in countries where classrooms are closed. As lockdowns ease, schools should be among…

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     Three-quarters of the world’s children live in countries where classrooms are closed. As lockdowns ease, schools should be among the first places to reopen. Children seem to be less likely than adults to catch covid-19. And the costs of closure are staggering: in the lost productivity of home schooling parents; and, far more important, in the damage done to children by lost learning. The costs fall most heavily on the youngest, who among other things miss out on picking up social and emotional skills; and on the less welloff, who are less likely to attend online lessons and who may be missing meals as well as classes. West African children whose schools were closed during the Ebola epidemic in 2014 are still paying the price.

(www.economist.com, 01.05.2020. Adaptado.)

No trecho “And the costs of closure are staggering”, o termo sublinhado equivale, em português, a