There is no evidence that there is any relation between reopening schools and a surge in Covid-19 cases, World Bank's Global Education Director Jaime Saavedra said in an interview with Indian news agency PTI.
Even if there are new waves, closing schools should be considered the last resort, the World Bank official told PTI in the interview from Washington, NDTV reported on Sunday.
"It does not make sense to keep restaurants, bars and shopping malls open and keep schools closed. There is no excuse," Jaime said.
"We have been able to see if schools opening has had an impact in the transmission of virus and new data shows it doesn't," he added, emphasising that many countries also had waves even when schools were closed.
A 2020 report by the World Bank Education, titled "Beaten or Broken? Informality and Covid-19 in South Asia", had predicted that the prolonged closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic in India may cause a loss of over $400 billion in the country's future earnings.
