Distance learning programmes should continue and be scaled up to reach more and more children, but they will never be a substitute to face-to-face schooling in the classroom with a teacher, especially for the most vulnerable children. We are not asking for all schools to reopen everywhere at the same time; we are asking for schools to be the first to open and the last to close. Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have made great progress in prioritizing an urgent and gradual school reopening; now its time for others to follow the same path across the region, added Jean Gough.