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The paper presents the results from an rapid review and meta-analysis of the scientific publications, national and international monitoring reports on the COVID-19 pandemic implications for the functioning of the educational systems in Europe with a focus on school preparedness and teacher digital competences for an accelerated adaptation to an entirely electronic distance learning during the first waves of lockdown for the educational institutions. The overview study focuses on the analysis of the pre- pandemic and the pandemic situation in education in 11 European countries. It is carried out with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria in late 2021 and early 2022. The meta-analysis regarding part of the formulated research questions highlights some interesting though not unexpected trends. On the one hand, data and conclusions from the first two waves of school lockdowns in the eleven European countries in the research lead to the conclusion that the high level of digitalization in the educational system and the well-developed teacher digital competences prior to the pandemic have facilitated and made more flexible the shift to an online modality of education when combined with decentralized crisis management strategies based on the provision of institutional and personal autonomy of the schools, the school management teams and teachers. On the other hand, it becomes clear that regardless of the level of the schools' pre-pandemic technological supply and the teachers' digital skills, the situation with the emergency transition to an entirely electronic distance learning modality is perceived and evaluated by them as strongly stressogenic. The results from the meta-analysis outline three areas of consensus where teachers from the European countries within the scope of the study have upgraded and improved their digital competences. These include: 1) the in-depth exploration and varied implementation of different synchronous and asynchronous environments, tools and software for organizing distance eLearning; 2) the flexible adaptation of digital educational resources by other authors and the creation of such by teachers themselves; and 3) the rethinking of approaches and methods for assessment and evaluation of student academic achievement within the digital learning process with a focus on the awareness of the synergetic connection between the strategies for formative, process-oriented assessment and those for summative, results-oriented assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]