INTRODUCTION

Many households worldwide suffered economic distress brought about by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The wave of this plague has inflicted misery mostly on low-income families, particularly in countries where governments are less able to provide adequate social amelioration support to their constituents. The World Bank and UNICEF joint report (2022) revealed that “at least two-thirds of households with children have lost income since the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago.” A report from the University of Michigan showed that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, low-income households are least likely to send their children to school (Mostafavi, 2020). According to Kakuchi (2021), Universities in Japan reported a decrease in new and ongoing student enrolment due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families’ economic conditions and students’ mental health. The leading reasons reported are students’ difficulty paying the tuition fees and lack of motivation while forced to study online at home.

The pandemic’s negative impact on families’ finances forced some U.S. students to sacrifice college, while one in four high school graduates postponed their college plans (Dickler, 2021). Feuer (2020) cited the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund as saying that “at least 24 million children are projected to drop out of school due to COVID-19.”

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