UN Secretary-General António Guterres message on International Day of Education, 24 January

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused chaos in education worldwide. Some 1.6 billion school and college students had their studies interrupted at the peak of the pandemic -- and it’s not over yet. Today, school closures continue to disrupt the lives of over 31 million students, exacerbating a global learning crisis. Unless we take action, the share of children leaving school in developing countries who are unable to read could increase from 53 to 70 percent. On this International Day of Education, I call on everyone to unite around education as a public good and a top political priority for the recovery and beyond.