Schools around the world have reopened their doors or are preparing to restart, in many cases while coronavirus transmission rates are rising, provoking fresh concerns about whether and how the process should take place.

After a near global shutdown of education settings as the pandemic spread earlier this year, 22 countries have now fully reopened their schools. By mid-September, 12 will do so and 55 have permitted partial reopening, using different strategies to mitigate the risk of transmission, according to an analysis by Insights for Education, a Swiss-based non-profit group. 

Scientific studies have largely shown the health risks to children of Covid-19 to be less severe than for adults and downplayed the role of schools in the transmission of coronavirus within communities. Meanwhile, pressure on governments has increased to reopen education systems to mitigate the long-term impact on students’ learning and accelerate broader economic recovery.