When schools started closing their doors due to COVID-19, countries in Europe and Central Asia quickly provided alternative learning solutions for children to continue learning. More than 90 per cent of countries offered digital solutions to ensure that education activities could continue. However, lack of access to digital devices and a reliable…

Significant progress has been made to close gender gaps in education over the last 25 years. Nevertheless, gender inequalities persist and education remains elusive for many girls. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that 11.2 million girls and young women may drop out or not have access to…

The implementation of remote learning?in Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19 school closures?confirmed that the divide?in access to electricity and?technology?remained?a?major hurdle?for governments across the region?to serve all children.?School closures risk widening?existing learning gaps as?private schools were?more prepared to…

COVID-19 school closures in South Asia lasted longer than in any other region. To mitigate subsequent effects, governments and education actors in South Asia provided a range of remote learning modalities. This report presents evidence on the reach and effectiveness of these remote learning strategies through a meta-analysis of studies from the…

Countries in West and Central Africa strived to implement national responses to continue learning activities during school closures. These responses relied on a mix of channels, including online platforms, broadcast media, mobile phones and printed learning packs. Several barriers, however, still prevented many children and adolescents in the…

COVID-19 school closures in East Asia and the Pacific threaten to widen existing learning inequities and increase the number of children out of school. During the pandemic, governments rapidly deployed remote learning strategies, ranging from paper-based take-home materials to digital platforms. However, lack of electricity -- critical to…

At the height of nationwide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 1.6 billion children were affected by school closures, causing the largest mass disruption of education in modern history. This joint report by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) presents new insights into children and young people's access to digital…

After almost one year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, killing over 1 million people and putting futures into doubt, the impact of the virus on the world's children and young people is becoming clearer -- and increasingly alarming. Children face a trifecta of threats: direct consequences of the disease itself, interruption in essential services…

This report, which has been developed through a partnership between the African Union Commission (AUC) and UNICEF, aims to: (1) track the progress that African nations have made in education, especially in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) goals; (2) identify the challenges…

In sub-Saharan Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have far-reaching consequences for 550 million children under the age of 18. This UNICEF Child Alert examines how the disease and measures put in place to contain it are impacting the lives of children across the region, exacerbating existing threats like conflict, climate change and…

Over 11 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in Latin America and the Caribbean. More than seven months after the first case hit Brazil, COVID-19 has deprived 97 per cent of the region's students of their normal schooling. Across the region, the prolonged closure of schools means that 137 million boys and girls continue to miss out on…