The COVID-19 pandemic has had a global impact. Closures of schools and colleges aimed at slowing the spread of infection took 90% of the world’s students out of their classrooms. By 15 May 2020, an estimated 574 million students were out of school across the Commonwealth. This brief to Ministers of Education gives examples of how governments and institutions made it possible for people to continue their education during the pandemic and highlights the lessons learned.
The report has studied the impact of COVID-19 on education from four perspectives – social, technological, pedagogical and psychological to provide a comprehensive overview. The crisis has become an important turning point to build education systems that not only respond to disaster but are resilient to it, through integrating distance and online learning. The current situation also gave an opportunity to focus on including the most vulnerable and marginalised learners into the educational mainstream.