The pandemic’s toll on schooling emerges in awful new exam results

IT IS ALMOST four years since the world’s classrooms started shutting down to 1.6bn pupils as covid-19 spread. At their height, school closures affected some 80% of all those enrolled globally. Youngsters then learned remotely, or not at all. It was the greatest disruption to education since the second world war. In many countries closures lasted long after it became clear that covid-19 posed a low risk to children’s health, and after vaccines became widely available to adults. Even when schools reopened, social-distancing quarantine rules still disrupted lessons for many.