As of mid-April, 191 countries had shut down all their primary and secondary schools, affecting almost 1.6 billion children. But the shift to remote learning has been uneven. Some systems were able to train teachers, roll out remote learning, and put in place student-support services in less than a week. Others are still struggling, constrained by lack of access to technology or expertise. The disparity is obvious among countries; it is also noticeable within them. Given that K–12 education in many countries is predominantly a local responsibility, students can live relatively near one another yet face very different prospects.
To read the article, see “School-system priorities in the age of coronavirus,” April 2020.