1.8 Trillion Class Hours Missed by Students Due to COVID-19, UNICEF

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, students around the world have missed a staggering 1.8 trillion hours of in-person instruction, and this number continues to grow. As a result, learners have been deprived of their education and other vital benefits provided by schools.

To draw attention to this educational crisis, UNICEF has presented an installation titled "Time Lost" at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The centerpiece of the installation is a clock designed in the style of an empty classroom blackboard, placed in the UN visitors' lobby in front of the General Assembly building. The clock calculates in real-time the total number of class hours missed by every student worldwide since the onset of the pandemic, which keeps rising.

The empty classroom features 18 student desks, each symbolizing the number of months of educational disruption caused by the pandemic.