Oecd covid survey eag indd

Excluding school holidays, public holidays and weekends
1. Most typical number of instruction days. For Colombia, some schools were fully closed during the period from September to 
December 2020 while others were partially open in hybrid mode for 65 days.
2. Minimum number of instruction days.
3. Different school holiday schedules explain the higher number of instruction days when schools were fully closed at pre-primary 
compared to primary level.
Countries and economies are ranked in descending order of the number of days schools were fully closed in pre-primary educa-
tion in 2020.
Source: 
OECD/UIS/UNESCO/UNICEF/WB (2021
[1]
).
As the pandemic continued to progress during the 
first half of 2021, pre-schools were much less likely to 
close their premises in almost all OECD and partner 
countries. In about half of countries with data,
pre-schools closed for ten days or less between 
January and May 2021, including countries such as 
Costa Rica or Ireland, where school closures were 
among the highest in 2020. In some countries,
pre-primary institutions remained open, although 
authorities recommended parents keep their children 
at home when possible. Such recommendations 
may, however, have been challenging for working 
parents. For example, municipalities in Denmark have 
estimated that approximately 66% of pre-primary 
children attended early childhood education and care 
(ECEC) in January 2021, increasing to 86% in March 
2021 (Kommunernes Landsforening 2021). Only in the 
Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary did
pre-schools fully shut down their premises for more 
days in 2021 than in 2020. 
Partial school closures were not as extensive in
pre-primary education as at higher levels of education. 
Only in Chile, Colombia, Lithuania and Turkey were 
pre-schools partially closed for 70 days or more 
between January 2020 and May 2021, while in 
Poland they remained partially closed for more than 
300 days over this period. 
Several factors may explain the lower tendency of 
governments to close pre-primary schools compared 
to other levels of education during the pandemic: 
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The early years are critical for children’s 
cognitive and emotional development,