This policy brief offers a practical and feasible action plan for how to preserve and enhance the provision of public education in deprived suburban neighbourhoods in times of pandemic. Based on critical insights collected in the past year at the urban periphery of Belgrade (Serbia), the brief suggests a shift in perceiving public schools in deprived suburban neighbourhoods from being perilous places for virus spreading to places from where to monitor and control the spread of the virus. Empirical evidence shows that the governmental decision to terminate the operation of public schools in general in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the position of marginalised suburban communities throughout Serbia as schools are often the only public social infrastructure in these areas. This brief calls for keeping the schools of such areas open as voluntary and as community-based information hubs in times of pandemic, offering public health information to marginalised communities.
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