Coronavirus fears have caused a record number of students to miss school, causing what UNESCO has called an "unparalleled" disruption to global education.

School closures in 22 countries had left 290 million students staying home around the world as of 4 March, the UN education agency said.

UNESCO released the figures in its first worldwide analysis of the threat COVID-19 poses to global education.

Thirteen countries had nationwide closures affecting students from pre-primary to upper-secondary schools, while nine other countries saw schools shut down in certain areas.

The report found that a further 180 million children would be affected if those nine countries closed all schools.


Country-wide school closures (290,509,228 pupils affected in 13 countries)

China [including Hong Kong and Macao]: 233,169,621

Japan: 16,496,928

Iran: 14,561,998

Italy: 9,039,741

Iraq: 7,010,788

South Korea: 4,229,170

Azerbaijan: 1,783,390

United Arab Emirates: 1,170,565

Lebanon: 1,132,178

Mongolia: 870,962

Armenia: 437,612

Kuwait: 358,786

Bahrain: 247,489

UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay said: "The global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education."

"We are working with countries to assure the continuity of learning for all, especially disadvantaged children and youth who tend to be the hardest hit by school closures."

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

UNESCO found consequences of the disruption - which are more severe for disadvantaged communities - include interrupted learning, missed meals and unequal access to digital learning tools.

Image: Some student at St Christopher's Prep School have adopted foot-tapping to protect from the virus

Parents may also be unprepared or unable to teach at home, face financial burden if they need to skip work or leave children at home unattended.

In an urgent effort to minimise these risks, UNESCO announced it will help set up large-scale distance learning programmes and hold an emergency meeting of education ministers from several countries next week.

There are more than 95,000 cases of COVID-19 around the world - the majority in China - and more than 3,200 deaths.

At the 15th Novel Coronavirus Response Headquarters meeting, PM Abe stated that the government would put health and safety of children first and request all elementary, junior- and senior-high schools and special needs education schools to close from March 2 to the spring break. pic.twitter.com/PdZHLlZ1QK — PM's Office of Japan (@JPN_PMO) February 27, 2020

Italy is the latest country to announce it was shutting all schools and universities, joining others including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China, with the latter having kept cities in lockdown for months.

At least a handful of schools have closed in the UK, many due to students or staff returning from skiing in Northern Italy.

Kuwait, Iran, Bahrain and Lebanon have also had some closures.

Image: A school in Derbyshire closed after a confirmed case of coronavirus "amongst its parent population"

The decision on whether to shut schools, and how many to close, poses challenges as children have not been infected with coronavirus at high rates.

A study from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found less than 2% of 44,672 cases were in people under the age of 19 and no one younger than age 10 had died.

But, despite the many measures taken across the world to limit the spread of COVID-19, cases continue to grow outside its birthplace of China at an alarming rate.