Combating COVID-19: Updates

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the OER Foundation with supporting partners UNESCO IITE and the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) have joined forces to establish an Open Educational Resources for COVID (OER4COVID) community. The goal is to assist education institutions around the world, especially in the Commonwealth, to transition to online learning. OER4COVID will host a series of synchronous sessions and online trainings to build capacity among educators to design and develop OER-enabled online courses. (COL)

On 27 March, UNESCO dedicated its second Covid-19 education response webinar to those on the frontlines of ensuring learning continuity: some 63 million affected teachers in 165 countries, along with education personnel. Bringing together participants from all regions, the seminar shed light on a wide range of issues, from the provision of training and support for teachers to the challenge of distance teaching in remote or rural areas with weak or no internet connectivity. (UNESCO)

School closures in the context of this rapidly-spreading virus have been deemed necessary by health authorities across the globe, to both slow the spread of the disease and to mitigate the effects on health systems that will not be able to cope with potentially massive numbers of critically ill patients.

However, confinement and school closures often have longer-term consequences, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalized, magnifying already-existing disparities within the education system. (World Education Blog)

UNESCO has been monitoring school closures since early March and documenting national responses, including through virtual ministerial meetings and webinars bringing together a community of practice.

This blog provides a snapshot of some of the measures taken by countries to address their immediate challenges. The information is based on various sources, including government announcements, official documents, decrees, circulars and guidelines available online, as well as media reports. (World Education Blog)

As school closures impact nearly 80% of the world’s student population, UNESCO on 23 March convened an online meeting of an ad hoc group of education ministers who shared information about scaled-up measures deployed in their countries to support teachers, parents and students in coping with home learning. (UNESCO)

Twelve multilateral organizations met virtually on 24 March 2020 at UNESCO’s call to an emergency meeting of the Multilateral Education Platform (MEP) on COVID-19 education response. The MEP was launched in July 2019 in the face of the global learning crisis and the urgency to accelerate progress towards SDG4. The MEP member representatives shared their respective COVID-19 responses and agreed to join forces to respond to the global challenge of education disruption. (UNESCO)

There is an urgent need for Governments and institutions to plan appropriate measures to protect citizens’ health, avoiding the violation of the right to education, in those countries where the epidemic is beginning to appear. At all levels of education, the authorities must ensure measures that encourage students to continue learning, despite the temporary closure of educational institutions. (UNESCO IESALC)

It takes a village to educate a child, and even more so in times of distance learning, when schooling goes virtual. A whole community approach and stronger partnerships are needed to make distance learning inclusive: this was one of the key takeaways from UNESCO’s first webinar on the educational response to COVID-19, which drew government officials, practitioners and experts from over 50 countries on 20 March 2020. (UNESCO)

School closures in a growing number of countries to contain the spread of COVID-19 are disrupting the education of millions students across the globe. UNESCO is sharing 10 recommendations to ensure that learning remains uninterrupted during this period. (UNESCO)

The international community is mobilising to provide resources to education systems from the national to the global level. Below is a non-exhaustive list of information, recommendations and resources put together by the Teacher Task Force members (International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030)

School closures – even when temporary – carry high social and economic costs. The disruptions they cause touch people across communities, but their impact is particularly severe for disadvantaged boys and girls and their families. (UNESCO)