May 14 (UPI) -- The United Nations said its latest audit of the wellbeing of children around the world found that the COVID-19 crisis had severe negative impacts on the classroom performance and mental and physical health of many children in wealthy countries.
Comparing 2018 data with 2022 data, the UNICEF Global Office of Research and Foresight report issued Tuesday looking at 43 OECD countries revealed the pandemic and shutdowns had exacerbated existing trends with children under-performing at school, more likely to be overweight and obese and less happy overall in the post-COVID-19 era.
Steep declines in academic ability were widespread, especially the basics such as reading and math, due to 3-12 month shutdowns that forced many children to learn remotely, resulting in children falling an estimated 7-12 months behind where they should be, UNICEF said in a news release.
Children from disadvantaged families fell furthest behind together with a 4% rise to around 8 million in the number of 15-year-olds functionally illiterate and innumerate, meaning they cannot understand a basic text, prompting fears for their future prospects.
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The children's rights agency said Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus and Mexico were ranked bottom, with two-thirds of 15-year-olds assessed as lacking basic literacy and numeracy.
Mental health also declined with children's life satisfaction plunging in 14 of 32 countries for which data was available, with Japan the only country bucking the trend, while analysis of physical health data found a signifcant rise in the number overweight children in 14 of 43 countries.
"Prior to the pandemic, children were already struggling on multiple fronts, and didn't have access to adequate support -- even in wealthy countries. Now, in the face of rising economic uncertainty, countries need to prioritize children's education, health and wellbeing to secure their lifetime prospects and happiness, as well as our societies' economic security," said UNICEF Innocenti Director Bo Viktor Nylund.
The Netherlands, Denmark and France were the top three nations be a child, unchanged from 2018, ranked by mental wellbeing, physical health, and skills.
The United States came last, just below Norway, Israel, Belgium and Australia, athough the ranking of all five was calculated minus information regarding mental health -- specifically the life satisfaction component of the data -- because it was not available.
UNICEF called for more a raft of polices to reverse the declines, including support for skills development across numeracy, literacy and digital, as well as social and emotional competencies, with a focus on children whose learning was impacted by COVID-19 and underprivileged children.
It urged the tackling of poor mental health through promotion and prevention and by providing specialist services, as well as measures to combat violence and virtual and physical bullying.
UNICEF called on governments to ensure nutritious food was available to children and to restrict marketing and promotion of unhealthy food targeted at them.
