Abstract
With the announcement of an epidemic by the World Health Organization in 2020, countries have been restricted in many areas such as economy, health, education, and social life. With this restriction process, it is possible to say that children experience difficulties accessing many salient services, especially education, health, and care services. Therefore, during the COVID-19 epidemic, children can be told that they are deprived of rights based on their protection and development. In this process, the research aims to examine the opinions of primary school teachers, individuals with whom students spend the most time through distance education after their families, on children's rights. Participants of this research, adopting one of the qualitative research methods i.e., phenomenology, consist of 19 primary school teachers working in Yozgat, Turkey, determined by purposeful sampling methods. In the research, data were collected through a semi-structured interview form. The data obtained were analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique. As a result of the research, teachers expressed the most opinions about children's right to life, nutrition, and a quality life standard as well as development right to access information. In addition, the most views were on the right of children to participate, on the right to express their opinions freely and on the right to protection from all kinds of maltreatment, neglect, abuse and exploitation. Therefore, teachers' views on children's rights to life, development, participation, and protection were evaluated as negative.
Highlights
With the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) worldwide, it was declared as an epidemic by the World Health Organization on March 12
If countries want to live in prosperity, happiness, and peace, they should allocate most of their resources to children's healthy growth and development following their interests and abilities (Akyüz, 2016)
This research was designed with qualitative research based on the views of primary school teachers on children's rights in the COVID-19 distance education process
Summary
With the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) worldwide, it was declared as an epidemic by the World Health Organization on March 12. One of the main reasons for this decision is that children (Shen et al, 2020) who have the disease with mild or no symptoms effectively spread the virus Another reason is studies conducted on previous epidemic periods reveal that closing schools are an effective practice in the control of the epidemic (Jackson, Mangtani, Fine, & Vynnycky, 2014; Rashid, Ridda, & King, 2015). The need for legal regulations to protect and keep children away from all kinds of exploitation, neglect, and abuse creates the concept of child rights (Serozan, 2005). In this context, the United Nations Council created the Declaration of the Child's Rights in 1959 to protect children's rights. The obligation to conclude legal agreement to protect children transformed the Declaration of the Rights of Child into the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child reached an international character (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 1998, p.71)
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