Education has significant challenges to resolve
The current pandemic we are experiencing is also a significant Education crisis, impacting over 67.6% of the world’s student population today, according to UNESCO. The temporarily closing of educational institutions ordered by most governments was an effort to hold back the proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 1,184,126,508 affected learners
- 67.6% of total enrolled learners
- 143 country-wide closures
Measures to take from now on
The UNESCO, the UNICEF, and all organisations concerned about the state of Education at all levels, during and after the pandemic, are coordinating weekly webinars to design a framework for stakeholders working in Education to share resources, ideas and practices to respond to school closings, and their re-openings. (the Global Education Coalition and the Teacher Task Force -TTF.)
Range of topics with a view:
- Protocols to follow regarding students’ health and how the crisis is affecting students’ mental, physical and educational health.
- To maintain the continuity of the learning process, mainly for children, youth and vulnerable population.
- To maintain the quality of the learning process at each educational level.
- To close the digital educational gap that ensures that everyone has the same chances to learn.
- To train educational staff to handle technological tools to teach.
- To guarantee students the proper environment for learning.
- How to ensure all students a better return to school as they re-open.
- To design a framework for the re-opening of schools that consolidates government protocols, such as distance learning.
- Equity and gender.
- Distance learning strategies.
- Global impact on the higher education campus. Higher Education and TVET.
- Education policy and planning.
- Global citizenship education.
- Education for sustainable development.
Main challenges teachers have encountered
The Teacher Task Force (TTF) organisation represents nearly 100 countries; its regional teams share their expertise, knowledge, the best practices, and challenges to meet. They enhance intra-regional collaboration and combine efforts with the UNESCO.
The regional-virtual meetings they are holding with national and regional stakeholders in the Education area, are to discuss significant challenges related to teachers, teaching, online learning and schools’ re-openings, to find common responses to face the crisis. The research and publications are made as a group by UNESCO education collaborators around the world.
UNESCO’s support - The Global Education Coalition introduced by UNESCO pursues to facilitate wide-ranging learning chances for children and youth during this exceptional educational disruption.
By investing in remote learning, they have mitigated the current disruption and create the line of attack that enhance more open and flexible education systems for the transformation of the Education of tomorrow, whilst fortifying the demand for the protection of learners’ personal information, privacy and security.
Global impact on early childhood education
More than 155 million students in 180 countries are children at the pre-school level, affected by the most massive disruption to Education ever seen. The overall opinion is that during school closures, pre-primary Education was overlooked contrasted to other levels of Education. The closure of schools likely to provide health, nutrition, social protection, learning and socio-emotional support to young children, represents an immeasurable threat to their potential development.
UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, along with several partners organisations, will be launching the #Save Our Future campaign this month to safeguard and spotlight Education as the solution and vest investment both, to the recovery and the future of teaching and learning binomial, demanding the modification of traditional Education.
“The pandemic has shown how vulnerable young children are,” stated Ambassador Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands. Some countries have been taking actions to provide for families, children and caregivers; for instance, emergency childcare services, financial support, and psychological counselling, or forefront volunteers.
The development of a public-private partnership to guarantee the continuity of the learning process, the advantage of distance-education, better use of online platforms, social media or TV/Radio channels or printed material, are some issues to cover for those who have no possible access to these solutions, focusing on vulnerable children with no access to any distance solution.
The agenda suggests virtual-kindergarten for children 3-6 years of age, already initiated during the COVID-19 crisis must be established as the new way of learning and implemented without compromising health and safety.
“Recovery cannot be just about investing in companies - it must also be about investing in the citizens of tomorrow,” the Princess stated.
Two actions announced:
- Train some 200,000 early-childhood teachers and educators through online/offline platforms, and by sharing already available pedagogical resources.
- Agree on a global strategy for ECCE with effective collaboration, building alliances and engaging in an innovative dialogue.
Is your educational institute ready for the new form of Education?
Dave Food