REMOTE EDUCATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO COVID-19

The pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus during 2020 has put world education systems in check after the almost global schools' closure. The proposals from the international community to preserve the right to education have been based on, for the majority, remote or online education. However, an assessment of the reality of the countries and regions is necessary to give a contextualized response to the needs and possibilities of each scenario. In this purpose, this work aims to: study the response of international organizations to the Covid-19 crisis in education; analyze the infrastructures, resources and real competences of the educational centers and of the teaching staff to develop a remote education; and to synthesize the main national policies to give continuity to the right to education in the face of school closure. In order to carry out the analysis according to the information that has been published since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, data and inventories of measures published by different institutions such as UNESCO, OECD, World Bank, UNICEF and Cotec Foundation were selected. The results have found that regions that concentrate high-income countries are prepared to offer remote education, while middle-income countries find barriers to make remote education possible, and low-income countries must rely on other mass media and communication resources.