COVID-related school closures threaten to reverse years of progress aimed at keeping children in school. Before the pandemic, 17 per cent of children and youth globally were out of primary and secondary school, compared to 26 per cent in 2000. From March 2020 through February 2022, schools worldwide were fully or partially closed for 41 weeks, on average. Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the longest school closures - more than 60 weeks in the past two years.

The longer children are out of school, the less likely they are to return. According to a 2020 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 24 million learners from the pre-primary to university level are at risk of not returning to school. Students from more disadvantaged backgrounds are at higher risk due to socioeconomic factors such as the need to generate income, increased care responsibilities, and early and forced marriage. Those who were unable to access distance learning during confinement are also at higher risk of not returning to school.

The COVID-19 pandemic came at a time when the world was already struggling with a crisis in learning: too many children lacked the fundamentals of reading and numeracy. Based on pre-pandemic data from 2015 to 2019, the proportion of children meeting the minimum required proficiency in reading at the end of lower-secondary school was between 70 and 90 per cent in most high-income countries. That proportion fell below 60 per cent in almost all middle- and lowincome countries, dropping to less than 10 per cent in some countries.

Learning losses due to COVID-related school closures have been documented in 4 out of 5 of the 104 countries that have carried out such studies. School closures are also likely to deepen disparities in learning: many countries that had poor learning outcomes prior to the pandemic also tended to have longer school closures.

Over the years, education has become much more widely accessible. That said, inequalities in access persist among various socioeconomic groups. In 2020, for example, 3 out of 4 children attended some form of organized learning one year before the official primary school age. Yet, participation was highly unequal: among countries with available data, disparities in attendance were found based on gender (39 per cent), urban or rural location (76 per cent) and household wealth (86 per cent). The data showed that girls tend to score higher than boys in reading proficiency at the end of primary school. They also showed that children living in rural areas and in the poorest households are consistently more disadvantaged in term of educational participation and outcomes than their urban, wealthier peers.

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have deepened inequality in education, with marginalized populations most affected. In the context of remote learning, for example, children from poorer backgrounds are less likely to have the devices and computer skills they need to get online, or a home environment conducive to learning. Ensuring a safe return to school and equity in education in the difficult transition period ahead needs to be a priority.