WORLD — UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief says the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting over 1 billion students.
In addition, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday at least 40 million children worldwide have missed out on education “in their critical preschool year.”
As a result, Guterres warned that the world faces “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities.”
Even before the pandemic, the secretary-general said, more than 250 million children were out of school.
