UNESCO COVID-19 Education Response

Education Sector issue notes

Issue note n° 7.1 – April 2020

Olga Gorevan/Shutterstock.com
School reopening
Introduction
As a preventive measure to curb the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools, universities
and other education institutions have closed in most countries, affecting almost 90% of the global
student population. While Member States work to ensure the continuity of learning through alternative
delivery modalities, in parallel, they need to start anticipating and preparing for school reopening.

Ministries of Education (MOEs), in consultation with Ministries of Health, Social Affairs and other key
public and private institutions, are in charge of planning for school reopening, prioritizing the safety and
protection of learners, teachers and other personnel, as well as their health - physical, mental and
psychosocial, well-being and social relationships. Back-to-school strategies need to focus on assessing
and ensuring the readiness of the education system for school reopening; the continuity of learning;
and, system resilience to anticipate and deal with future crises. MOEs will also need to anticipate and
prepare for additional challenges resulting from the direct and indirect consequences of COVID-19 and
prolonged social isolation, on both the education system and on the school community. These include
increased risk of dropout, the exacerbation of existing and new inequalities, or the loss of education
personnel.

1
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
Despite the great challenges presented by this crisis, the situation also offers the opportunity to rethink
the overall purpose, role, content and delivery of education in the long term, and prepare education
systems to deal with current and future crises through comprehensive and inter-sectoral approaches
and by tapping into collective experience and practices from around the world.

Defining the topic and related key issues

Key questions around school reopening concern timing, conditions and processes. Timing will depend
on the status and evolution of the pandemic and will be determined in each country based on political
decisions, with advice from health experts and established monitoring mechanisms. The
unpredictability of the length of the closure period poses specific challenges and requires flexible
scenario planning. UNESCO has been monitoring the situation globally and notes that most MOEs are
planning for either partial reopening (e.g. China), dispersal re-opening (different grades on different
days) or remaining closed until further notice.

Contingency plans for school reopening can be based on contextual factors, as in some countries the
closure period coincides, for example, with the beginning of the school year, in others with the end, the
examination period, or school holidays. MOEs need to prioritize reopening strategies based on the
status of their school calendar, their education objectives and priorities.

While recognizing that the situation varies across different geographical, sociocultural, economic or
other contexts, strategies to consider with relation to school reopening are grouped around three
overarching areas, to assess and ensure:
1. System readiness: assessing the availability of people, infrastructure, resources and capacity to
resume functions;
2. Continuity of learning: ensuring learning resumes and continues as smoothly as possible after
the interruption; and
3. System resilience: building and reinforcing the preparedness of the education system to
anticipate, respond to and mitigate the effects of current and future crises.

An overarching priority will be the overall health and well-being of the school population (students,
teachers, and other personnel). This should include approaches to deal with post-traumatic stress
caused by COVID-19, and the resulting social isolation and confinement.

Other major issues to consider include a heightened risk of school dropout, as observed during past
crises, and increased inequalities, often the result of unequal access to alternative learning delivery
methods. In certain contexts, students may also be affected by lack of nutrition, or exposure to
violence, displacement, child labour and other adverse conditions, with girls and women being
particularly vulnerable. Special attention must also be given to students from vulnerable backgrounds,
including those living in poverty, geographically remote areas or urban slums, from ethnic minorities,
migrants and refugees, and children with disabilities.

Lessons from past practices and current crisis

• Past recovery responses highlight the need to prepare as soon as possible for school reopening, to
ensure that appropriate strategies are defined and schools are ready to operate once confinement
measures end.
• Communication is key to building trust among stakeholders and partners. It is therefore important
to ensure effective communication channels, within the school community, between the
government and other education authorities and schools.
2
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
• The socio-economic impact of the pandemic on families and the wider community, and its effect on
education must be considered. For example, school dropout or transfers increase during crises as
families lose income, are forced to leave the affected areas or resort to negative coping
mechanisms such as child labour; inequalities are exacerbated due to lack of social services, health,
nutrition and protection; female vulnerability is exacerbated, gender-based violence (GBV),
including sexual and domestic violence rises, together with incidences of early marriage and
pregnancy.
• Community engagement and awareness-raising should be prioritized in back-to-school strategies to
ensure higher return rates. In post-Ebola Sierra Leone, communication around improved school
hygiene practices were effective in encouraging parents to send their children back to school upon
reopening.
• In African countries hit by the Ebola crisis, adjusting learning priorities was a key strategy to ensure
curriculum is covered in a shorter academic year. Such approaches should be initiated as soon as
possible and be part of MOE’s planning efforts for school reopening.
• Capitalize on the momentum of using ICT to assist learning and keep up with technology after the
crisis. However, caution must be exercised, in order to avoid potential inequities that may result
from these alternative education delivery approaches.
• School preparedness to deal with infections should be incorporated into education sector planning,
as it will be key to mitigate the impact of potential future disease outbreaks.
• Strengthen the leadership and meaningful participation of women and girls in all decision-making
processes to address the COVID-19 outbreak. During the Ebola crisis, women were less likely than
men to have power in decision making around the outbreak, and their needs were largely unmet.

Key messages and practical tips for designing policy interventions

Below are practical issues related to school reopening that Ministries of Education need to consider and
address, primarily in the immediate, short and medium-term, but also in the long-term. The list is not
exhaustive and can be considered and complemented by other appropriate actions based on local
contexts.

Immediate-term action: assessing and ensuring education system readiness

Preparing for school reopening:

• Coordinate: Determine who will manage the post-crisis situation, and how, looking at staff,
modalities, and processes. This includes deciding when schools reopen, how much in advance,
under which conditions and measures, and how to inform students, parents and caregivers,
teachers and other personnel. Work through existing crisis management teams and functions, to
ensure a smooth transition from remote learning to classroom learning. Manage governance
issues, especially in the context of partner engagement, for example with the private sector, and
philanthropic institutions, ensure community participation and improve accountability.
• Plan: Carry out a situation analysis to determine the effects of the pandemic on education, for
example the health and safety of the school population, loss of instructional time, learning
outcomes, missed exams, inequalities and dropout from a gender lens, using sex-disaggregated
data and reviewing policies that may create barriers to school return, including those that prevent
pregnant girls or adolescent mothers attending schools. Prepare contingency plans at school,
district, regional and national levels, including priority setting and strategy development,
monitoring, and financing. Consult with key stakeholders and ensure gender expertise in response
teams and task forces. Key actions for rapid assessment are presented below.
• Determine strategies and actions, both at national and school level, to mitigate impact and
address immediate gaps, in consultation with concerned education stakeholders and other
relevant sectors:
3
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
 - Ensure a smooth transition from distance learning platforms to classroom delivery.
- Adjust curriculum and delivery modalities to enable the meeting of key learning objectives
for the school year, and to promote the use of more practical approaches to learning such as
project-based learning.
- Rearrange the school calendar based on curricular priorities for each level.
- Implement targeted accelerated learning/remedial/catchup programmes or shorten teaching
periods.
- Adapt the examination/evaluation calendar and content based on a back-to-school learning
assessment. This may necessitate the recruitment of volunteer teachers.
- Ensure professional support is provided to teachers who need to adapt their teaching
approaches in a flexible way. For instance, delivering a compressed curriculum.
- Train teachers and students on alternative teaching and learning approaches, before, during
and after crisis, in consultation with teacher-training institutions.
- Identify strategies and interventions to address learning gaps, especially among vulnerable
groups, and to mitigate inequalities that might have been created or exacerbated during
confinement. This may include supplementary teaching, tutoring, and extra-curricular non-
formal learning activities.
- Determine what to assess. For example, in Costa Rica evaluation will be formative, not
related to grades, as ideal and equal learning opportunities could not be ensured for all
students during school closure.
• Prioritize: Depending on the context, this may include focusing on high-stake examinations, such
as those determining entrance to higher education institutions, or graduation certificates.

Rapid assessment of infrastructures, human, technical, and financial resources

• Education personnel: availability, health status, motivation, etc. Foresee redeployment in case of loss or
mobility as teachers may leave the affected areas, especially if they do not have fixed contracts.
• Status of school infrastructure including school availability, potential need for rehabilitation works and
resources, including disinfection. This would be particularly necessary in cases where schools were used
for other purposes during the closure period.
• Status of school health environment: availability of sanitation facilities, separate for girls and boys; and
health equipment such as clean water, soap, sanitizers, hand washing facilities, and thermometers.
• Availability and coordination of resources and modalities to offer psycho-social support. For example,
qualified doctors and other specialists such as psychologists, school counselors, and social workers. In
the absence of specialists, focal points need to be identified, noting that in this case pre-training will be
necessary. Other options might include collaborating with relevant local universities/institutions.
• Sourcing and distribution of food supplies for school feeding programmes.
• Overall financial impact and status of school financing.

Short-medium-term actions: resuming school function and ensuring continuity of learning

Ensuring students, teachers, administrative and other staff are ready to resume teaching and learning

Health support
• Ensure security and safety of students at, on the way to, and from school to minimize the risk of
new infections.
• Assess impact of school closure and confinement on the health and well-being of the entire
education community, including students, teachers and other personnel. This might require
strengthening the monitoring capacity of MOEs. For example, by expanding EMIS by developing a
tracking/reporting system or introducing Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) for monitoring the
health status of staff and students.

4
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
• Partner with community and health personnel for systematic monitoring of the health status of the
students and staff, including SOPs, alert system in case of infection or illness, and actions to be
taken in case of new infections.
• Promote health education, implement school health protocols, diffuse age and language-
appropriate messages around hand washing, hygiene, prevention at school and in the classroom.
• Care for mental health and socio-emotional well-being. For example, offer psychosocial support to
students and education personnel to deal with post-traumatic stress, coordinate the work of pre-
identified psychologists, counselors, social workers or focal points.
• Assess and address female vulnerability, GBV, including sexual and domestic violence, and the
increased risk of early marriage and pregnancy.
• Communicate with the wider community, consult with and support parents and caretakers to
support children.
• Deal with prejudice and stigma, which in certain cultures persist even after recovery.

Academic support
• Ensure teacher coordination and motivation, and deal with the risk of attrition.
• Provide teacher professional development, in collaboration with teacher training institutions -
providing distant learning, options for curriculum adaptation, peer learning, etc.
• Monitor student returns using sex-disaggregated data, and ensure compliance with the provisions
of compulsory education, identifying and targeting vulnerable groups and those at risk of drop out.
• Ensure student motivation, and address disengagement and risk of dropout, which increases in
emergency situations. Identify those at risk of exclusion and not returning to school, and consider a
Back-to-School Campaign. If and where necessary, consider programmes to address stigma and
direct community mobilization, waiving school fees, broadening the scope of school feeding
programmes, and providing targeted support to vulnerable groups.
• Assess the consequences of school closure on curriculum execution and consider adjustment
options.
• Assess impact on learning and identify learning gaps among students, focusing on vulnerable
groups.
• Implement appropriate remedial action and accelerated learning strategies as pre-planned.
• Ensure quality, equality and inclusion.
• Identify inequalities, considering disparities among students, schools, households or regions.
• Recognize and address female vulnerability.
• Consider qualifications assurance and certification, focusing on priority/time-sensitive group, such
as graduates transitioning to higher levels of education requiring entrance exams, graduates’
transition to the world of work, and those requiring exam-based certification.
• Monitor the situation, documenting lessons learned at all levels, from school to national levels, to
inform further action. This may concern teaching and learning processes, governance and
management of schools, strengthening education community, and promoting the continuity of the
exchange of experiences.
• Develop national, district and school risk-reduction plans that focus on the range of risks school
communities are confronted with.

Long-term actions: education system resilience

• Document lessons learned to inform future decision-making and practice. For example, for crisis
preparedness and incorporation into education planning and costing, with a gender-sensitive lens.

5
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
• Rethink the purpose, content and delivery of education and learning, and consider possible
reforms.
• Rethink the role of schools: building knowledge, skills and attitudes, social function, and promoting
health and well-being.
• Revise and develop policies and guidelines, for example on distance learning.
• Strengthen distance learning, including both delivery and content development.
• Set implementation, coordination and monitoring arrangements and communication during and
after crises.
• Reconsider delivery modalities. For example, distance education, both on and off-line, could be part
of mainstream approaches. This should be accompanied by teacher and student training, and a
preparedness to use alternative teaching and learning approaches, before, during and after crisis.
• Ensure adequate resources are allocated to meeting school hygiene standards.
• Enable peer learning: create platforms for experience sharing, national, regional and international.
• Review and ensure Education in Emergencies (EiE) is included in national education policies and
plans, with specific and clear strategies.

Practical Tips:

✓ Acknowledge the unprecedented magnitude and global nature of the crisis.

✓ Prioritize collaboration and working in partnerships, within and across countries and consult with
key education and other concerned stakeholders.
✓ Promote multi-sectoral collaboration, for example among sectors such as education and health, as
well as the social sector, private sector, and community.
✓ Promote and facilitate peer-learning, sharing of experience, information, challenges, lessons
learned, but also solutions and ideas. If there are group discussions, as well as other actions in the
short term to promote the solidarity and understanding between the educational community
members, this should be cultivated in the mid-term and long term.
✓ Strengthen communities of practice for teachers.
✓ Monitor the evolving nature of the situation constantly. This may be done using crowd-based
monitoring, cloud-based data and information sharing.
✓ Learn from past experience but also accept that sometimes learning by doing might be the only
option.

Key references
UNESCO Education in Emergencies: https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies
UNESCO COVID-19 Education Disruption and Response: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
IIEP Conflict and disaster risk reduction: http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/our-expertise/conflict-and-disaster-risk-
reduction
IIEP - UNESCO. 2010. Guidebook for Planning Education in Emergencies:
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190223
UNESCO ‘Back to School’ Campaign: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/syria-crisis-response/regional-
response/iraq/back-to-school-campaign/
Teacher Guide Kit: Psychosocial Support and Learning in Difficult Circumstances
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265135?posInSet=76&queryId=6f673a2c-2bce49ea-a089-
6118a45f7948
UNESCO. Reconstruir sin ladrillos (Building without bricks) - tools for response, preparedness and recovery in
emergency contexts:

6
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/FIELD/Santiago/pdf/Guia_completa_educacion_emergenci
as.pdf
UNRWA Education in Emergencies: https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/education-emergencies
Syria Crisis Education Information Management (IM) Package. January 2019:
https://www.nolostgeneration.org/sites/default/files/makhalid/IM_Package_(Jan_2019).pdf
Hallgarten, J. 2020. Evidence on efforts to mitigate the negative educational impact of past disease outbreaks K4D
Helpdesk Report 793. Reading, UK: Education Development Trust :
https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/15202
INEE Minimum Standards Handbook: https://inee.org/standards
Education Development Trust. Evidence on efforts to mitigate the negative educational impact of past disease
outbreaks:
https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/15202/793_mitigating_education_effects_
of_disease_outbreaks.pdf

About UNESCO Education Sector´s Issue Notes

UNESCO Education Sector’s issue notes cover key topics related to the COVID-19 education response.
They provide evidence of good practices, practical tips and links to important references for each topic
in an effort to mitigate the impact of school closures.

The issue notes cover several topics under nine thematic areas, namely: Health and wellbeing;
Continuity of learning and teaching; Gender equity and equality; Teaching and learning; Higher
education and TVET; Education and culture; Education policy and planning; Vulnerable populations, as
well as Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development

They are prepared collectively by UNESCO education colleagues across the world. The present note was
developed by UNESCO’s Section of Education Policy and UNESCO International Institute for Educational
Planning with support from UNESCO Offices in Abuja, Bangkok and Santiago.

7
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening
Stay in touch

UNESCO's COVID-19 Education Response

[email protected]

https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse

@UNESCO

@UNESCO

ED/2020/IN7.1

8
Issue note n° 7.1

School reopening