12
© OECD 2021
The State of Global Education: 18
Months into the Pandemic
Criteria for deciding to close a school are set centrally in most
countries
Central governments play a major role in decisions
related to the closure or reopening of lower secondary
schools. Among the 37 countries and economies
reporting to the Special Survey on COVID-19, these
decisions were taken by the central government
in
about two-thirds of them, or at a lower level of
government within a framework set at the central level
in another 6 (Figure 4). Even in countries such as the
Netherlands, where nearly all decisions are taken
at school level in public lower secondary education
(Figure D6.1 in OECD (2018
[5]
)), the decisions
on school closures are taken at the central level.
Nevertheless,
in some countries, such as Denmark and
Finland, regional or local authorities can also decide
on local school closures in addition to decisions taken
at the central level.
Central governments continue to play a major role
in decision making concerning the national sanitary
measures for school reopening, either deciding on
these issues (in 15 out of 36 countries) or setting
frameworks for these decisions (in 8 countries).
This reflects the co-ordination with national health
authorities on whether to close or open schools.
However, in some countries
such as Colombia and
Lithuania, central government decided to reopen
schools, but subnational entities had the authority to
override national recommendations based on the local
state of the pandemic.
Policies for closing classes (and in rare or extreme
cases, schools) in case of a positive test for one or
more students were generally the same for primary and
lower secondary schools across all countries. Closure
strategies in higher education were more flexible.
Number of days where schools were partially closed between January 2020 and 20 May 2021
Number of days where schools were fully closed between 1 January 2021 and 20 May 2021
Number of days where schools were fully closed in 2020
Number of days
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
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o
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os
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ia
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ia
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C
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(U
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en
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ar
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Sw
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la
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Sw
itz
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la
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re
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Fi
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d²
Fr
an
ce
Be
lg
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Sp
ai
n
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et
he
rla
nd
s
N
or
w
ay
Lu
xe
m
bo
ur
g
N
ew
Z
ea
la
nd
Br
az
il¹
Sl
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ak
R
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¹
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ly
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Figure 3•
Number of instruction days that upper secondary general schools were fully
or partially closed in
2020 and 2021
Excluding school holidays, public holidays and weekends, between 1 January 2020 and 20 May 2021
1. Data for 2021 and on number of days schools were partially open are missing.
2. Data on the number of days schools were partially open are missing.
3. Some schools were fully closed during the period from September to December 2020 while others were partially open in
hybrid mode for 65 days.
Countries and economies are ranked in descending order of the number of days schools were fully closed in upper secondary
education between 1 January 2020 and 20 May 2021.
Source:
OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB (2021
[1]
).
© OECD 2021
13
The State of Global Education: 18 Months into the Pandemic
Positive cases of COVID-19 in higher education
institutions were generally less
likely to result in the
closure of classes than at other levels of education, and
instead led to the isolation of the infected student(s) for
a set quarantine period. This is not surprising, as tertiary
institutions were already heavily engaged in remote
teaching and learning strategies in 2021, facilitating
social distancing.
Only in a few countries (Korea, Latvia and
New Zealand) did certain schools shut down entirely
when a positive case of COVID-19
was detected
among students or staff. In Korea, for instance, a
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