@ED2030AfricaEducation in the time of COVID-19
As of March 18, 849 million children and students have been forced out of schools and universities in a total of 113 countries. Read three recommendations on how education can be continued during a global health crisis and play a role in mitigating the virus.
March 18, 2020
(c) GPE/Kelley Lynch
This opinion piece was first published in Devex on March 16, 2020.
While countries around the world are racing to understand and limit the spread of the new coronavirus, and as headlines focus on those efforts, a major side effect has been overlooked: education.
As of March 16, 777 million children and students have been forced out of schools and universities in a total of 100 countries, with 85 governments closing schools nationwide and 15 others imposing localized school closures, according to UNESCO. A large majority of those – 670 million – are between preschool age and 18 years old. Those numbers are only likely to rise in the near future.