Education is society’s greatest equalizer and a significant determinant of sustainable economic growth. Halting education exacerbates socio-economic and gender inequalities within and between countries and negatively impacts future generations. Despite this, together with the evidence of negative direct and indirect effects on children and adolescents of closing schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries continue to keep schools closed even when there are clear World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to the contrary.

This policy brief calls for the G20 to develop a policy to reopen schools and close them only when recommended by the WHO and as a measure of last resort.