It has been around two months since schools, colleges, universities and other education and training institutions closed in more than 190 countries, affecting 1.57 billion children and youth - 90% of the world’s student population. Closures happened in quick succession as a measure to contain the COVID-19 virus transmission. As the situation stabilizes, countries are eager to reopen educational institutions in the realization that the longer the interruption of education, the larger the learning loss and the greater the implications related to students’ parents’ ability to work. In addition, COVID-19 put under the spotlight the fact that schools are not only places of learning but institutions that provide social protection, nutrition (school meals), opportunities for physical activity, health and emotional support that are particularly important for the most disadvantaged, in low- and high-income countries alike.

According to UNESCO data, 65 countries already have plans for partial or full school reopening, 32 will end the academic year online, while 100 have not yet announced a date for schools to reopen. For 890 million students, the school calendar has never been so undefined.

When and how to reopen educational institutions is one of the most difficult and most sensitive decisions on political agendas today, as governments are struggling with questions such as whether it is safe to reopen educational institutions or is there a risk of reigniting infections? There is preliminary evidence that children and young people have lower susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 compared with adults, and inconclusive evidence that they people play a lesser role in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at a population level (Viner et al.). Many other questions remain, such as what are the mechanisms of transmission in children, what has been the impact of school closures and other public health measures aimed at limiting transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and what is the potential impact of reopening educational institutions on transmission of COVID-19 in children and in the wider population?

Although WHO has a vigorous process for considering new recommendations and developing guidance for COVID-19 emergency response, there is no global scientific advisory body to advise in a systematic way on how to translate emerging knowledge on educational institutions and COVID-19 into evidence-based strategies related to school closure and reopening. It is important to consider also that SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is likely to be with us for the immediate future, and containing virus transmission will need to be considered together with the need to address children emotional and psychosocial wellbeing, food security for the most vulnerable, and the need to free up parents to be able to get back to their previous work levels. This is an immediate as well as a medium and longer term agenda.  A global independent expert advisory group on educational institutions and COVID-19 to systematically review evidence and provide strategic guidance on priority areas, actions, interventions, and stakeholder accountability would provide great value to the global COVID-response community.  The core function of this Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of experts for educational institutions and COVID-19  would be to provide strategic and technical advice to WHO, UNESCO and UNICEF on matters relating to educational institutions and COVID-19 transmission, with a focus on evidence-based strategies for institutional closures, reopening and monitoring of the effects of these policies. The TAG will be hosted by the WHO’s Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA).