Over one billion students are still affected by school closures according to a report by Niall McCarthy on Statista. That represents 60.5 percent of all learners worldwide. According to the article, the number of national school closures has fallen from 138 countries in March to 105 currentlyMany K-12 schools have altered their plans for instruction by offering remote classes and issuing students technology for learning at home, while others have given the option of a hybrid approach with less face-to-face meetings and smaller numbers of students.
UN Secretary General, António Guterres, this week warned that the world faces a “generational catastrophe” with so many closures.
“Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” Guterres said. “Getting students back into schools and learning institutions as safely as possible must be a top priority.”
Watch the video message by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on the launch of the policy brief on Education and COVID-19 here: