As part of the measures to further prevent the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, a number schools across the world have shut down.
According to the recent information from UNESCO monitoring, a total of 56 countries have closed schools nationwide, impacting over 516.6 million children and youth.
Some states in the US like Florida, Ohio, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Michigan, West Virginia, Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington and Alabama have ordered all schools closed for at least a week.
Though New York has not ordered any school closings, but some schools have started adopting online class.
The latest school closure announcement came from Southern California on Friday with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District closing for two weeks beginning today, Monday. They are the two largest districts in California, with more than 750,000 students combined.
Washington DC, one of the states with most coronavirus death cases will be keeping more 1.1 million kids out of school for 6 weeks until April 24.
Also in UK where a total of 1,543 people have tested positive for the virus, school leaders in England are to hold talks with the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, on Monday to discuss possible plans for schools and colleges in England. The Government had previously resisted pressure to close schools like other countries.
Meanwhile, a number of schools have closed in Scotland due to the virus outbreak and in Wales, three universities have announced plans to cease on-site teaching in a bid to protect staff and students.
With 516,615,598 learners affected globally, this is harmful to the education sector and one can only hope that a cure will soon be discovered for the deadly virus.
