At least a third of children couldn’t access remote learning when the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, creating “a global education emergency,” the U.N. children’s agency said. At the height of lockdowns meant to curb the pandemic, nearly 1.5 billion children were affected by school closures, UNICEF said. “For at least 463 million children whose schools closed due to COVID-19, there was no such a thing as remote learning,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. The highest number of children affection by region were in South Asia, at least 147 million, according to the report. The youngest children are also most likely to miss out on remote learning during critical years, the report said, largely due to challenges and limitations to online learning for young children and lack of assets at home.