Combating COVID-19: Updates

UNESCO, in cooperation with the European Commission, Twitter, and the World Jewish Congress, is launching a series of easily accessible and comprehensive visual learning resources to raise awareness of the existence and consequences of conspiracy theories linked to the COVID-19 crisis. The resources also address how to recognize conspiracy theories, refute them with facts and respond effectively to those who are spreading them. (UNESCO)

The UNESCO Tashkent Office jointly with the University of Journalism and Mass Communication of Uzbekistan published a Handbook on “Fake news: disinformation in media”, within the framework of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Uzbek Media to Serve the Public Interest – Phase II”. (UNESCO)

“Technology has played a dominant role in education throughout this pandemic that has exposed deep digital and gender divides”, said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education. UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition partner, Technovation, is launching the Technovation Idea Lab. The Idea Lab is a place where the global community comes together to pilot test new programme ideas and approaches with a select group of students, volunteers, and Technovation staff. (UNESCO)

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the least advantaged the hardest and highlights the harsh reality of educational inequality. As we look to rebuild, we must ensure that the global literacy challenge is finally and decisively met, writes Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, UNESCO Special Envoy on Literacy for Development. (UIL)

Inclusive education is at the core of the collective vision at Teach For All — a world where educators, policymakers, parents, and students are working together to ensure that all of their communities’ children have the foundation they need to shape a better future for themselves and all of us. The 2020 GEM Report on Inclusion and Education is rooted in the premise that “education systems are only as inclusive as their creators make them”. (World Education Blog)

This Guidance Note aims to provide an overview of entry points and means for monitoring the attendance and re-enrolment of students in the context of COVID-19 related school closures and re-openings. It is intended for UNICEF education staff, and education policy makers, and practitioners. (UNICEF)

In the face of the ongoing pandemic, thousands of schools, teachers and learners all over the world had to switch to remote teaching and learning almost overnight. In this interview, Dr Inge Molenaar, Chair of the 2019 edition of the ICT Prize, tells us more about the difference between intelligent and non-intelligent technologies, existing AI applications in education, and risks and opportunities these applications could create. (UNESCO)

UNESCO and the European Union are launching an awareness-raising project to strengthen the resilience of states in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will help societies address the challenge of the lack of reliable information on the coronavirus. This lack of trustworthy information has far-reaching consequences not only for public health, but also for good governance and for peace. (UNESCO)

A UNESCO COVID-19 Education webinar, organized on 15 July 2020, shed light on the importance of early childhood care and education (ECCE) to ensure that learning and wellbeing of young children is given due consideration when educational and care services are disrupted, with a special attention given to vulnerable young children. The webinar attracted more than 1000 participants including global leaders, country policymakers, ECCE practitioners and education partners. (UNESCO)

The COVID-19 pandemic has made accessible, virtual learning for girls more important than ever before. UNESCO is partnering with global tech education nonprofit Technovation, a member of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, to support countries to develop inclusive learning solutions. Together, they are running the Technovation Idea Lab: a free, online, 5-week tech education programme for girls. During the programme, girls will learn what artificial intelligence (AI) is, how it works, learn how to build their own AI model. (UNESCO)

UNESCO is launching a Global Skills Academy aiming to equip one million young persons with employability and resilience skills and help them find jobs during the looming recession. Members of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition, launched in March to support countries in developing inclusive learning solutions, are teaming up to provide youth with opportunities to gain digital skills and other competences through free access to online skills development programmes. Partners’ offers will be pooled within the Global Skills Academy, providing a one-stop access to training opportunities. (UNESCO)

Already before the COVID-19 crisis, young people globally (15-24 years old) were three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. Today, more than one in six young adults is out of work because of the pandemic. This year’s World Youth Skills Day – celebrated annually on 15 July – highlights these challenges, as well as the important role youth will play in shaping the post-COVID-19 world. (UNESCO IIEP)