Friday 30 October 2020
14h00 – 15h30 GMT+1
The COVID-19 crisis presents unprecedented challenges to education systems across countries and regions. It not only tested the resilience of education systems, but also led to massive school closures, directly affecting about 1.6 billion students from pre-primary to tertiary education. About 900 million learners of the world student population are expected to start the 2020-2021 academic year between August and October. Even though, only 433 million have assurances of returning to full-time face-to-face classes.
Against this background, UNESCO supported and facilitated policy learning by convening ministerial meetings and conducting a series of webinars (on school reopening, teachers, curriculum, assessment) for decision makers and practitioners. In addition, UNESCO also launched the Global Education Coalition in March 2020, an unprecedented multi-partnership involving UN organizations, civil society and private sector, academia and media, to provide appropriate and inclusive distance learning opportunities for all actors’ impacted, educational professionals, learners and families. UNESCO also convened the Global Education Meeting (GEM) to examine education responses to crisis, advocate for protecting education and saving the future of all learners.