Combating COVID-19: Updates

IIEP experts have put together some recommendations that will hopefully be of help in these difficult times. Five short documents summarize in practical terms what can be done to address some of the challenges confronting countries – as well as teachers, learners, and their families – when it comes to managing such a crisis, they also draw lessons from the situation and provide guidance on planning and preparing for future crises. (UNESCO IIEP)

This blog discusses the extent to which profit has driven business interests in education in contexts of crisis, the ways in which business actors have been welcomed as global education policy experts, and how companies might best contribute to education during today’s emergency. (World Education Blog)

As the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, most governments have temporarily closed all educational institutions. Consequently, there is a transition to distance learning on an unprecedented scale. Institutes are racing to shift their courses online; and students are engaging en masse with e-books and e-learning. As the demand for credible e-resources surges, digital libraries have emerged as vital pathways to high-quality e-books, journals and educational content. (UNESCO New Delhi Office)

With UNESCO estimating that more than 1.5 billion learners – over 90% of the world student population – are confined to their homes, providing alternative learning solutions has become the top priority for every ministry of education. However, in today’s increasingly decentralized systems, it is at local level that the impact of this new reality plays out. With more than half the world’s population living in urban areas, cities have an essential role to play in ensuring that all learners continue to enjoy full access, albeit at a distance, to education provision, especially in the most deprived areas and homes. (UNESCO)

On 3 April, UNESCO convened its third webinar as part of the COVID-19 education response drawing over 150 government officials, practitioners and experts from numerous countries around the world. The webinar examined the gender dimensions of COVID-related school closures, and exchanged knowledge on how countries can ensure gender-responsive, evidence-based actions during and after this educational disruption. (UNESCO)

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) constantly strives to create new points of engagement amongst educators across the field of online, digital and blended learning. OLC is dedicated to supporting the advancement of quality online teaching and learning experiences that extend access to education for all learners. Over the course of two weeks (April 21 – May 1), the OLC will be holding a series of virtual salons, featuring exchange of emerging ideas and effective practices from the peers. (Online Learning Consortium)

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Weidong Cloud Education has provided “Remote Class” – distance learning solutions for nearly 10 000 educational institutions in China, with more than 10 million users. Teachers and students are using Weidong Learning Management System WeLMS to realize remote teaching and learning. The “Future School” project of UNESCO IITE will also be implemented in several Asian and African countries with Weidong ICT-in Education solution to help developing countries improve their ICT capacity and digital development in education. (Weidong Cloud Education)

HUAWEI CLOUD announced the launch of a global action plan to help customers around the world to fight COVID-19 with cloud and AI services. As part of this international action plan against the coronavirus, it will be providing free AI and cloud services and will be recruiting partners around the world to help fight this pandemic together. HUAWEI CLOUD has also released the Anti-COVID-19 Partner Program, a program focused on five main scenarios: online education, smart healthcare, AI support, remote office and enterprise assistance. (HUAWEI CLOUD)

UNESCO, in partnership with IBM and SAP, has launched the CodeTheCurve Hackathon to support young innovators, data scientists and designers across the world to develop digital solutions to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. CodeTheCurve is organized in two phases, beginning with a video competition for ideas, it will be followed by a Hackathon among 40 selected teams. The Hackathon will run until 30 April 2020. Participating teams will work on one of three main themes: 1) Ensuring continued learning 2) Data management and information, and 3) The present and the future: societal and health issues. (UNESCO)

Many of the world’s low- and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the impact is already being felt. The risks posed by the coronavirus are especially high for millions of people who live in poverty or have only recently emerged from it. The World Bank Group is acting quickly to step up support as countries respond to the COVID-19 crisis and face a wide range of consequences, including the risk of global recession. (The World Bank)

With no precedent for such large-scale interruption, education leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries are learning from the region’s extensive experience in mass media education broadcasting. The World Bank organized a broad consultation to learn from this rich tradition and support LAC countries in responding to the current education crisis. The article features examples of the initiatives and programs that Latin American countries are activating in response to the crisis. (World Bank Blogs)

The last few weeks have witnessed heightened awareness of the threat from the outbreak of COVID-19. As the virus spreads around the world, we also need to understand what it means for the education systems of Europe and Central Asia. To date, almost all countries in this region have instructed their primary and secondary school systems to close completely or partially. The question is, from an educational perspective, what do these students do when schools are closed? Сan students actually benefit from technology at home? These and other questions are discussed in the article. (World Bank Blogs)