UNICEF report: more than a third of children worldwide couldn’t switch to distance learning

This is more than a third of students worldwide, ranging from pre-school to high school students. These numbers were announced in a recent UNICEF report, "COVID-19: Will children be able to continue their education during school closures?"

The place where changing to online education was the most challenging, was in Sub-Saharan Africa. In all areas of the world, organizing distance learning was most difficult in rural areas, as well as in households with extremely low income.

Issues with the organizing online learning existed in rural areas even before the coronavirus pandemic. In counties with mostly middle- and high-income population, 75% of children who could not switch to distance learning live in rural areas. For low-income countries, the percentage was even higher.