CLOSURE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Across the OSCE region, the temporary closure of educational facilities, ranging from childcare to universities, has been almost complete. In some states, nurseries and schools for the children of “essential” workers have remained open. Different approaches have been taken to ensuring continuity of learning for school-age children and young adults, ranging from educational programmes being broadcast on television to online distance learning. Access to interactive online learning is dependent on the technological capacities of specific countries (and in schools and households), and there are stark differences between rural and urban areas in terms of Internet access. The right to education is a fundamental right; it encompasses the full development of the person192 and lifelong learning. All children and young people have the right to an education, regardless of their sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.193 States are obliged, even during emergencies, to ensure core “minimal educational standards” that encompass, inter alia, providing universal primary education and national strategies that concern the provision of secondary, higher and fundamental education.194 In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has suggested that the right to education be expanded to address “the importance of connectivity and access to knowledge and information.”195 Right to education Examples of impacts on girls and young women: • Past experience has shown that, during crises (such as the Ebola epidemic), school closures jeopardize girls’ right to education.196 Among the OSCE participating States, certain groups of girls were already at higher risk of interruptions in learning and dropping out of school altogether before the coronavirus pandemic. In South Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, boys are more likely to complete primary education, and girls are more likely to be out of secondary school than boys. Gender disparities in favour of boys’ education are also more pronounced among ethnic minority groups, such as the Roma and Sinti, and among children with disabilities, children in rural or isolated areas, children from low-income households and among refugee children.197 There is a serious risk that 192 ICESCR, op. cit., note 16, Art. 13. 193 UN General Assembly, “Convention on the Rights of the Child”, 20 November 1989, Arts. 28, 29, <https://www.ohchr. org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx. 194 CESCR, “General Comment No. 13: The Right to Education (Art. 13 of the Covenant), op. cit., note 18, para. 57. 195 UNESCO, Education in a Post-COVID World: Nine Ideas for Public Action, (Paris, UNESCO 2020), p. 5, <https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373717/PDF/373717eng.pdf.multi>. 196 UNESCO, “Addressing the Gender Dimensions of School Closures”, 2020, p. 2, <https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ ark:/48223/pf0000373379/>. 197 Economic Commission for Europe, Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting, “Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination against the Girl Child”, 2019, <https://www.unece.org/beijing25.html>. 57