Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Schools Closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Catastrophic Global Situation

Danilo Buonsenso
* ,
Damian Roland
,
Cristina De Rose
ORCID logo ,
Pablo Vásquez-Hoyos
,
Bazlin Ramly
,
Jessica Nandipa Chakakala-Chaziya
,
Alasdair Munro
,
Sebastián González-Dambrauskas
Version 1 : Received: 4 December 2020 / Approved: 8 December 2020 / Online: 8 December 2020 (10:20:41 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 11 December 2020 / Approved: 14 December 2020 / Online: 14 December 2020 (11:54:04 CET)

How to cite: Buonsenso, D.; Roland, D.; De Rose, C.; Vásquez-Hoyos, P.; Ramly, B.; Nandipa Chakakala-Chaziya, J.; Munro, A.; González-Dambrauskas, S. Schools Closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Catastrophic Global Situation. Preprints 2020, 2020120199. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202012.0199.v2. Buonsenso, D.; Roland, D.; De Rose, C.; Vásquez-Hoyos, P.; Ramly, B.; Nandipa Chakakala-Chaziya, J.; Munro, A.; González-Dambrauskas, S. Schools Closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Catastrophic Global Situation. Preprints 2020, 2020120199. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202012.0199.v2.

Abstract

School closures (SC) were adopted globally as a COVID-19 disease pandemic containment strategy. This extreme measure provoked a disruption of the educational system involving hundreds of million children worldwide. The return of children to school has been variable and is still an unresolved and contentious issue. Importantly the process has not been directly correlated to the severity of the pandemic s impact and has fueled the widening of disparities, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations. Available evidence shows SC added little benefit to COVID-19 control whereas the harms related to SC severely affected children and adolescents. This unresolved issue has put children and young people at high risk of social, economic and health-related harm for years to come, triggering severe consequences during their lifespan. In this article we describe the process of SC and the reopening timetable across the globe. We highlight the data regarding the international state of educational systems around the world, putting emphasis on the rights of children to come back to school.

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic; children; schools; schools closures; global health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 14 December 2020
Commenter: Danilo Buonsenso
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
Comment: We have submitted an updated version of the manuscript where what has been substantially modified is represented by the figures: figures 1 and 2 in the manuscript now contain informations from data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (https: //www.bsg .ox.ac.uk / research / research-projects / coronavirus-government-response- tracker) while supplementary figures 1 and 2 refer to the data collected by us through interviews with local colleagues. The latter two are the same of the figures of the previous manuscript with the addition of a clarification about USA and Australia as indicated in the legends of the same figures that have been modified.
Now the whole manuscript seems to us more complete with information and clarifies some doubts that had been raised with the previous version compared to some countries such as the USA and Australia as already mentioned.
We thank you in advance.
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