The Guardian: ‘Many girls have been cut’: how global school closures left children at risk
“Covid-19 school closures have exposed children around the world to human rights abuses such as forced genital mutilation, early marriage, and sexual violence, child protection experts say. Globally, the World Bank estimates that 1.6 billion children were locked out of education by Covid-19. As schools in England and around the world prepare to reopen this week, NGOs warn that millions of the world’s most vulnerable children may never return to the classroom, and say that after decades fighting for girls’ education the pandemic could cause gender equality in education to be set back decades…” (Grant, 6/1).

Wall Street Journal: Is It Safe to Reopen Schools? These Countries Say Yes
“A number of countries that have reopened schools in the past two months have reported no resulting increase in coronavirus infection rates, an encouraging sign for authorities around the world that are contemplating how and when to safely bring children back to the classroom. Authorities in many hard-hit countries such as Italy and the U.S. have so far resisted reopening schools for fear of triggering an increase in infections. … Researchers and European authorities said the absence of any notable clusters of infection in reopened elementary schools so far suggested that children aren’t significant spreaders of the new coronavirus in society…” (Pancevski et al., 5/31).