COVID-19 Education Response Webinar: Back to school: preparing and planning for the reopening of schools; synthesis report

UNESCO organized the sixth COVID-19 Education Response Webinar on 24 April 2020 with the title ‘Back to school: preparing and managing the reopening of schools’, around effective strategies for anticipating and preparing for school reopening and sharing lessons from past crises. Reopening schools after the confinement is a complex decision that needs to be made based on advice from health experts and in consultation with all concerned actors. Key questions revolve around the timing, conditions and processes for reopening, with the overall safety, health and well-being of the entire school population as the primary concern. The webinar aimed to: enable information sharing and dialogue around effective strategies for preparing and planning for school reopening; highlight some of the common challenges to anticipate and ways to address them; share lessons learnt from past crises, which can be useful in informing decisions in the current context.