How can we map educational inequalities during and after the pandemic? 27 APRIL 2021

Dear JRC colleagues, dear panellists,

Thank you for organising this debate today on a subject of great importance for our future and especially for our children's future.

We saw that the COVID-19 pandemic has had and continues to have a major impact on various aspects of human life and the socio-economic activity.

One central element of addressing the consequences of the current crisis is to better understand how the educational sector has been affected.

Young people and educators have directly suffered in such a context – however, there is an acute need for mapping educational and related socio-economic inequalities a year following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

In the SEDEC commission, we recently adopted an Opinion on "Achieving the European Education Area by 2025".

In this Opinion, we point out to the systemic problem of educational inequalities and we call to reduce current education disparities between remote, rural and urban areas, between regions, and between educational establishments.

We strongly believe that these disparities are a contributing factor in persistent inequality in terms of having access to and remaining in education and long-term outcomes, particularly entering the labour market and securing a well-paid job.

The COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated these inequalities and if we do not act quickly and decisively they would have permanent and substantial consequences for the future generations.

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on education in local communities, putting many learners and teachers who do not have access to digital infrastructure at a clear disadvantage or in difficulty.

Let us not forget: in the face of emergency, we turned physical education into online education, but without going through the crucial qualitative step of turning physical education into real digital education.

Education has been faced with challenges in the areas of the digital transition and transformation, new teaching methods, providing a safe environment for students and teachers.

We need to identify systemic challenges and pinpoint which transformations need to be acted on to deliver education systems able to cope with similar situations in the future.

In doing this we need a "Mapping of educational inequalities", in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of access to e-learning.

One of these challenges will also be the attainment of not only social, economic and territorial cohesion, but also of digital cohesion.

But what indicators could be used as proxy of an "evidence-based" monitoring process?

From our experience at local and regional level (including measures during the pandemic), we would propose to look into: 1) access to infrastructure (schools); 2) access to teachers, including their training for digital methods; 3) connectivity (broadband and individual devices, software etc.).

We will work together with the JRC within the framework offered by the Joint Action Plan signed last November with Commissioner Gabriel.

While this could be a medium term process, some urgency is needed to also respond to the inclusion, by the Council of the EU, of the "educational divides and inequalities" as key societal challenges to be discussed at the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Having a global comprehensive image of what happened would help us understand what is needed and propose measures and actions to close the gaps.

So we are interested to hear from experts and specialists in the field and we very much appreciate the discussion today.

Thank you!

This webinar brings together renowned academics who found different ways how to map educational inequalities in times of data lack. The webinar will inform about current knowledge on the increase of educational inequalities in Europe and include a discussion on possible ways forward to map educational inequalities in more comprehensive and informative ways in the future.

Confirmed speakers: Dr Sylke Schnepf (JRC) and Dr. Zsuzsa Blaskó (JRC), Dr. Stephane Chaudron (JRC), Dr. Per Engzell (University of Oxford), Dr. Dirk Hastedt (Executive Director IEA)