More than 144 million students in Latin America and the Caribbean have missed nearly five months of school due to public health measures taken by governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis has meant a triple shock for children and adolescents, with the prolonged closure of schools, confinement due to lockdown measures and the loss of economic security in households. This triple shock has both short- and long-term repercussions that put the development of an entire generation at risk.

Although governments throughout the region have implemented distance learning strategies intended to maintain a degree of continuity in children’s and adolescents’ learning and well-being, these solutions have been unevenly implemented and may even further exacerbate the education gaps that existed in the region before the pandemic.