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LEAPS Director Zainab Qureshi discusses the consequences of COVID-19 on low-cost private schools in Pakistan, which currently serve about one third of school aged children in the country. These schools are more prevalent in villages with a girls’ secondary school and therefore are a significant source of employment for local women without college degrees, as teaching is among the few socially acceptable professions for women in Pakistan. Given the already narrow profit margins of these schools, the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures not only threaten the education of millions of children, but the livelihoods of millions of female teachers as well.

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