The COVID-19 pandemic has not only created profound \u2018learning losses\u2019 globally, but has also revealed \u201cstructural flaws in education systems worldwide\u201d, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).<\/p>\n
The agency highlighted these losses and flaws during a \u2018Pre-Summit\u2019 on 28 to 30 June at its headquarters in Paris, with some 2,000 participants, including more than 100 ministers and more than 30 deputy ministers of education discussing how to transform education, amid calls for urgent action by youth leaders.<\/p>\n
A precursor to the United Nations Transforming Education meeting slated for September in New York with heads of state, the Paris gathering focused on five \u2018thematic action tracks\u2019 encompassing inclusiveness, equity, skills for life and sustainable development, the teaching profession and digital learning, as well as the financing of education.<\/p>\n
Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO\u2019s director-general, said the Pre-Summit was an opportunity to \u201cshare international experiences and priorities\u201d so that states could move forward in the \u201csame direction\u201d to resolve the current \u201ccrisis\u201d in education and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4, providing quality lifelong learning to all.<\/p>\n
She said that, even before the pandemic, 259 million children (one-sixth of the world\u2019s population in that age group) were not in school, a situation that affects, not only primary and secondary education, but which has disturbing implications for the future of higher education as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there were more than 770 million adults who could not read or write, two-thirds of whom were women, reflecting persistent inequalities. But this situation has been made worse by the pandemic,\u201d Azoulay added, calling for a \u201ctrue Copernican revolution\u201d especially in response to the issues of digital transformation and climate change.<\/p>\n
According to the director-general, \u201c21st-century education must respond to the needs of the 21st century and its challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said that member states could build on certain existing initiatives in meeting the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals; these initiatives include UNESCO\u2019s Report on the Futures of Education<\/i> as well as a \u201cglobal architecture for education\u201d \u2013 with a new High-Level Steering Committee (or HLSC), co-chaired by Sierra Leone\u2019s President Julius Maada Bio and by Azoulay.<\/p>\n
Responsible for \u201cglobal coordination and monitoring of SDG 4\u201d, this committee will be expected to follow up on actions beyond the New York meeting.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it has called for heads of state and government to push education to the top of the political agenda, and Azoulay said the UNESCO report should also be a reference for all.<\/p>\n
The report is the work of an international commission, chaired by the President of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, who attended the Pre-Summit, alongside the virtual participation of other members. The commission issued a statement<\/a> outlining the changes necessary for education to serve \u201cshared needs\u201d and \u201ccommon futures\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, it is time for every single country to take ownership of this report and to make it a tool for change,\u201d Azoulay said, describing crucial aspects such as \u201cthe need to develop critical thinking, notably through media and information literacy\u201d and the need to \u201cmainstream education on nature, on sustainability\u201d.<\/p>\n Earlier, in May, the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022) took place in Barcelona and included the presentation of another report \u2013 Reimagining the Futures of Higher Education: Insights from a scenario development process towards 2050<\/i> \u2013 commissioned by UNESCO and coordinated by Mpine Makoe, dean of the college of education at the University of South Africa.<\/p>\n In contrast to the Barcelona conference, however, and to the disappointment of some delegates, higher education was not a specific focus at the Pre-Summit in Paris.<\/p>\n Still, the field was included in the overall discussion and in the action plan, said Peter Wells, who is chief of the Section for Higher Education at UNESCO.<\/p>\n He told University World News<\/i> in a telephone interview that, while WHEC is clearly UNESCO\u2019s flagship programme for higher education in the decade ahead, the sector is implicit in all the action tracks as aspects of lifelong learning.<\/p>\n \u201cA key take-away is a lot of groundswell support to really see education, not in its silos of early years \u2013 foundation, primary, secondary, tertiary \u2013 but to see it as a lifelong commitment to education,\u201d he said. \u201cI think this is a key to transforming education and how we look at education.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that the higher-education community needed to ensure that secondary-school students\u2019 creativity, diversity, passions and interests continued on to university level alongside the focus on academic activity.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means really widening the scope of the traditional set programmes and courses that constitute a bachelor or masters degree \u2013 but particularly bachelor \u2013 more in the liberal arts tradition,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a key reflection for our higher-education community: to extend, to value young people\u2019s secondary experiences but also to prepare them for doing things that they have never heard of before when they finally graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding the digital aspects of education and the pandemic, Wells said the transformation that\u2019s necessary came out very clearly in Barcelona \u2013 that what was often considered impossible before, especially by traditional universities or higher-education institutions, had proven to be necessary, with online courses giving opportunities to rural communities, for instance. On the other hand, those without computers, internet access or even electricity, suffered.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a huge diversity there in harnessing the uses of technology that benefit everybody,\u201d he added. \u201cNobody wants to go online full-time \u2013 that\u2019s not good for \u2026 social interaction, mental well-being, we all know that. But there\u2019s room for a compromise, room for a hybrid modality.\u201d<\/p>\n More attention on student health needed<\/b><\/p>\n The Pre-Summit included a Youth Forum that brought together youth activists and representatives, and the issue of online learning also concerned many. In interviews with University World News<\/i>, some participating students said that universities should have paid more attention to students\u2019 mental health as the pandemic progressed and courses moved to a remote format. <\/p>\n More information<\/a><\/p>\n Full report on UWN site<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The COVID-19 pandemic has not only created profound \u2018learning losses\u2019 globally, but has also revealed \u201cstructural flaws in education systems worldwide\u201d, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2731,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730\/revisions\/2731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unesco.kpi.ua\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}