Children’s resistance to COVID-19 symptoms has been one of the positive news surrounding the crisis. However, we must acknowledge that children have experienced problems that could disrupt their education’s education’s broader quality. According to the European Commission, school closures worldwide deprived 58 million primary and secondary school children of face-to-face learning. For several weeks in March 2020, children had limited interaction with education professionals. Outside the research community, people have underestimated the consequence of this and instead perceived it as temporary. Specifically, children coming from low socio-economic backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by school closures.

Countries were not prepared for this outbreak, but ones such as Australia and New Zealand already had some education tools embedded in their learning curriculum. These tools include new technology and sufficient internet connection. A difficulty encountered in using these technologies is accompanied by considerations of access and the socio-economic backgrounds of families. The income or educational level of parents determine the support for the new style of learning. It defines their level of financial aid and the conditions and environment that children have available at home. It is worth questioning whether the child has his own space and all the tools needed to ensure smooth learning and progress. Amid the crisis, academics were the first to realize the impacts of COVID-19 on students’ prospects and experiences.

The inequalities of access to this new learning style were already a current issue before the crisis; the outbreak only confirmed it. Countries are still adapting to online learning, and it is inevitably true that many children have experienced a considerable delay in their education. The efforts to provide increasing access are continuously disrupted by several issues arising from the crisis. However, efforts are gradually converging to level the playing field for online learning. This democratization of online learning will likely prevail after time, taking into account the evolution of lifestyles and technology.

This raises concerns about the possible presence of biases in assessment outcomes, which might have a differential impact according to a student’s gender, socio-economic background and ethnicity. Policy-makers have primarily responded by finding solutions and remedies to the delay accumulated in education throughout 2020. Solutions have included suggestions to more closely supervise children in lower socio-economic backgrounds. In several countries, exams have been adapted to facilitate a better approach for fragile children.

COVID is undeniably widening educational inequalities for children around the world. One risk of COVID-19 is witnessing a rise in teen pregnancies, as adolescent girls are left without the schools’ safety net. This gendered disadvantage deprives young girls of the opportunity to further their education and attain their career goals. It also exposes them and their children to significant health risks. According to the World Health Organization, “Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15–19 years globally.”

In remote parts of the world, the government must partner with businesses and nonprofit organizations that have resources, networks, and access to small villages. At this point in the pandemic, implementing community-based learning through local grassroots organizations may be the best way to make this alternative approach achievable. It is vital to provide laptops for primary children since remote learning opportunities at the pre-primary level are now more critical than ever. Governments must implement these initiatives, or rural children will never be able to compete with their urban counterparts, and the promise of technology-enhanced teaching and learning will remain unrealized.

COVID-19 has highlighted the desire to foster a creative and craft/talent economy in addition to classroom learning. So, as governments grapple with education challenges during and beyond this pandemic, there is a need to reimagine learning environments. Besides digitalizing the syllabuses, there is a greater need to improve the capacities of teachers in e-learning. For example, to create e-learning labs in rural schools and community centres, stabilize the electricity supply in remote counties, and/or fund alternative energy sources for rural schools. In the long term, there is a need to involve more stakeholders to support ongoing efforts to replace our traditional education system. Instead, focusing on core competencies such as communication and collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and imagination, citizenship, digital literacy, learning to learn and self-efficacy. All of these types of responses exemplify how COVID-19 has intensified and exaggerated fault lines in contemporary societies. They reveal back to us the ways of dealing with the inequality that our communities have consistently disguised and ignored.

This has revealed that ironically, most people’s interest in education is a means “to compensate for society” and how fragile such compensation is for so many people much of the time. In the end, COVID-19 has meant the loss of educational opportunities for many millions of children. As they are left further and further behind, the whole world will be the poorer for it. It is essential to mention that plans to tackle these issues must include ensuring equity, quality of access and infrastructure, which was not universally guaranteed during the lockdown. Regarding the future of digital education, the lockdown was an opportunity since we are now aware that we need technological development in the field.