For all those currently in the education system, the COVID-19 crisis marks a critical moment in students’ learning pathways, with potential implications well beyond the crisis. Widespread institutional closures and subsequent estimated learning losses, as well as continued disruption as institutions begin welcoming students back under new constraints, are likely to have a significant educational and economic impact on individuals and societies for years to come. This means that merely returning education to the status quo of the old normal, which was already failing to meet the needs of all learners, is not an option. Policy makers must therefore support all actors across the education system to maintain the momentum of collective emergency action and leap forward into a better normal.