Rapid modernization of the national school: the COVID-19 pandemic as a challenge to the secondary education system
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the global school system to face an unusual set of circumstances. As the pandemic threat grew, schools around the world were closed through- out March 2020 to prevent the virus from spreading. Although school closures have been announced as a temporary measure, prolonged closures could cause significant disruption to the education ecosystem, affecting an estimated 1.5 billion students in 165 countries. It is now clear that this situation will have a lasting impact on the social, emotional and mental health of children and adolescents, as well as on overall learning outcomes, which may widen the gap between children from well-off and disadvantaged families. The use of alternative channels for delivering learning information to which not everyone still has access will further widen the gap. The pandemic has forced the education system to focus on developing health and safety requirements and conditions, in the new environment, rapid and flexible responses and solutions to minimize the impact on learning in the short and long term. All of this responds to the challenges of the pandemic, which we will explore in more detail in the text below.