As of now about 18, 849 million children and students have been forced out of schools and universities in a total of 113 countries. Read three recommendations during a global pandemic and play a role in justifying the virus.

While countries around the world are racing to understand and limit the extent of the novel coronavirus, and as headlines focus on those efforts, a major side effect has been ignored: education.

First, how can education be continued during a global pandemic and play a role in mitigating the virus? Second, what is the role of education in preventing future pandemics?

In response to 2014’s fatal Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the Global Business Coalition for Education, an organization founded by Their world, put forward a threefold response for education, focusing on backup provision, safe reopening of schools, and sustaining healthy communities — which drew on principles applicable to nearly all public health crises. All three are relevant today:

  • Reopening safe schools
    • providing teachers with truthful information and training on the public health crisis.
    • rapidly monitor and trace any reemergence, and providing any additional physical or mental health support
  • Behind safe schools and healthy communities
    • to use schools as a way to implement broader public well-being programming.
    • it is equally important to develop unforeseen event plans for future emergencies.

Maintain Social Distancing.Stay at Home, Be Safe, and Save Lives..