Crises and the COVID-19 pandemic: education responses and choices during times of disruptions
1. Cape Verde A. Description of country context As an island state located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa, Cape Verde is an archipelago of ten volcanic islands with an area of 4 033 km2 (ITUC-Africa, 2020a). The country is currently at a crossroads and faces the challenge to develop a more sustainable growth model mainly because tourism, which accounts for 20% of GDP, is among the sectors that have severely suffered from travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic (ITUC-Africa, 2020a). Cape Verde’s current population is estimated at 556 943 as of 29 August 2020 (Worldometer, 2020a). The latest education statistics in Cape Verde indicate that there are 12 000 pupils in pre-primary schools, 83 499 pupils in compulsory primary schools, and 30 096 in secondary schools (Lusa Agency, 2020). Cape Verde confirmed the first case of the coronavirus infection on 19 March 2020 after a 62-year-old English tourist was diagnosed with the disease on the island of Boa Vista (Lusa Agency, 2020). As of 13 October 2020, Cape Verde had 7 155 confirmed cases and 75 deaths, which although seemingly low, it is significantly higher than Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Mali in West Africa (Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, 2020c). Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cape Verde and in an attempt to contain its spread in the country, the government declared a state of emergency, calling for the closure of all educational institutions on 20 March 2020. Nevertheless, as an alternative to the closure of schools, Cape Verde resumed school classes through distance and home-based learning to keep students in touch with the subject content which would normally have been taught before the lockdown (InforPress, 2020).
B. Educational governance Educational policy-making response In response to the COVID-19 crisis, governance matters continue to be crucial both to recovery and to building a new normal once the COVID-19 crisis has passed. This subsection covers two aspects of policy-making response:
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