Cambodia among 17 countries in the world to prioritise vaccination for teachers

Cambodia among 17 countries in the world to prioritise vaccination for teachers

Cambodia is among 17 countries in the World to prioritise vaccination for teachers, according to a press release of the Asian Cultural Centre (ACC) AKP received this evening.

UNESCO urges all countries to prioritise teachers in national COVID-19 vaccine rollout plans to ensure education can continue safely and schools remain open, it pointed out.

In March 2021, it continued, one year into the COVID-19 crisis, UNESCO and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 carried out a country survey to inquire how countries were prioritizing teachers in national plans.

Based on data from 150 countries—including data from the UNESCO/UNICEF/World Bank Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures, the research found that only 17 countries coming from several regions prioritise teachers within the first group for vaccination, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as a number of other middle- and low-income countries including Cambodia and Viet Nam and The Gambia, Rwanda and Uganda, the same source added.

Prioritising teachers in the first phase for vaccination is also the case in some states/provinces undertaking efforts at sub-national level such as in New Delhi in India, it said.

According to the press release, another 19 countries allocated teachers to the second priority group to be vaccinated, after health workers and highly vulnerable populations. This is the case for a number of countries in Europe including Germany, Malta and Spain, but also of South Africa where numerous teacher fatalities have been reported.

Another 20 countries include teachers as a priority group for vaccinations in the third phase or even higher. This is the case for a number of countries in Latin America such as Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. It is also the case in high income countries including Ireland, Italy and Ukraine. Yet while Chile also has placed teachers in the third tier, it has also administered one of the world’s highest rates of shots per population, therefore vaccinating more than half of the country’s 513,000 teachers and education workers in time for the start of the school year.

In total, 54 countries do not prioritise teachers in their vaccine rollout plans or plans are still in development. This amounts to about 1 in 4 teachers globally. This is the case of a large number of low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Sierra Leone, among others. Teachers are not prioritised either in some countries in East Asia, like is the case in Myanmar and the Philippines. Khmer Times