The fact that there are millions of untrained teachers across the world may exacerbate the educational impact of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a global education charity.

Data published by Unesco’s Teacher Task Force shows that 9.1 million teachers across the world who have been impacted by coronavirus school closures are not trained. According to education charity the Varkey Foundation, “this is only exacerbating the impact of the crisis as teachers are forced to adapt to remote learning”.

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The data has been released for the first time at a virtual global teachers’ summit being held by the foundation.

The issue is most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, where almost half - 42 per cent - of the 6.4 million primary and secondary teachers impacted by school closures are not trained. In central and southern Asia, 3.3 million teachers impacted by school closures are untrained - 25 per cent of the total - while in Latin America and the Caribbean there are 894,000 untrained teachers impacted - 14 per cent of the teachers impacted overall.

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Data released by Unesco also shows that 706 million pupils worldwide lack internet access, making remote learning more difficult during the crisis.

Stefania Giannini, Unesco assistant director-general for education, said: “It is vital that we put the teacher voice at the heart of our mission to champion inclusive learning opportunities for children and young people all over the world during this sudden and unprecedented disruption to global education.

“I welcome the nine new teacher task forces, established by the Varkey Foundation and coordinated in collaboration with Unesco’s Teacher Task Force, to help discuss the key educational issues of our time from teacher training to providing reliable internet access for all and solutions to keep students learning where internet access is unavailable.

“The combined knowledge and experience of these teachers in tackling a multitude of novel educational challenges from the front line will help the international community answer the crucial questions that will shape the future of education in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The summit is also being used to launch global teacher task forces on education goals during and after the coronavirus outbreak, such as the need to ensure reliable internet access for all.