DER SPIEGEL Suche öffnen Generation Lockdown Schoolchildren Around the World Face a Steep Uphill Battle Hundreds of millions of children around the world have been unable to attend school for months because of the pandemic. More than 24 million may never return. The future of an entire generation is at stake. Bild vergrößern Children in a Kenyan slum: Around the world, school closures are dimming the future prospects of today's students. Foto: Brian Otieno / GGImages / DER SPIEGEL When the twins Esther and Deborah Pereira still hadn't heard anything from their school by early February, despite months of waiting, they turned to books to satisfy their longing. Their father scraped together his savings to buy them: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," "Pinocchio" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."