Understanding Global Education Trends Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

Recently, gearing up for major education’s milestones in 2022, the Group of Friends for Education and Lifelong Learning met to discuss its strategic positioning to take forward the global education advocacy.
Ambassadors deliberated how to scale-up commitments on education and advance key stakeholders’ engagement in the year 2022. Chaired by H.E.  Ambassador Kimihiro Ishikane, Permanent Representative of Japan to the UN, the Ambassadorial meeting also featured the participation of UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Ms Stefania GIannini, and  Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dr Fernando Reimers.
Opening up the meeting, H.E. Ambassador Ishikane voiced concerns on the global trends in education and the unprecedented shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the education systems worldwide. Highlighting the driving force of education for development, he commended the group for being an active champion as it had raised visibility and ascertained the centrality of education for all sustainable development goals at the UN Headquarters. Referring to momentum around education, he stressed the need for the group to reimage its role and become a stronger complementary player for mainstreaming SDG4 into the latest, most pressing global issues, such as peace, climate change and digitalisation thus paving the way for increased political will to ensure every child and young person went to school and learns.
Bringing in UNESCO’s expertise, Assistant-Director General for Education, Ms Stefania Giannini, alerted on the most profound and universal disruption of education in history that happened over the past 2 years. Responding to the urgency, UNESCO supported the global mobilisation through the Global Education Coalition as ‘every government deployed diverse solutions to enable learning continuity and reopen schools safely’, she said. To accelerate progress on SDG4 and strengthen commitment to education as a public good, UNESCO also led the reform of the global education cooperation mechanism, which now counts ministers and head of agencies in its High-level Steering Committee. In adapting the global response to current challenges, it was important to scale up digital knowledge and skills to address deep inequalities in education, as well as to  improve quality content and tap on new pedagogical practices.Last year, member states united to adopt the Paris Declaration, a global appeal initiated by UNESCO and France to increase investment in education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis – for the future of humanity and the planet.
Building on the call for global solidarity, Professor Fernando M. Reimers presented key findings of the global report “Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education”. By recognising governments as important actors that must engage with a much wider group of stakeholders, such as teachers, students, and civil society, the report identifies key issues that all countries should centre their educational systems around. In an effort to rethink education, the report calls for a human rights based approach that should lead to a transformation of the fundamental culture of education. This can include a pedagogy re-organised around the principles of cooperation, collaboration and solidarity and an interdisciplinary curricula targeted at developing a ‘new ecological intercultural stewardship’. Recommendations also suggest that the teaching should be further professionalised as a collaborative endeavour, where teachers are recognised for their work as knowledge producers and key figures in educational and social transformation.
Additionally, the organisation of schools should be reimagined as to connect education institutions to the larger ecosystem. Professor Reimers stressed that the report should be regarded as an invitation to a ‘broad global movement to a process of deep democratic and inclusive social dialogue on the future of education.
As education will be taking centre stage at the UN, Ambassadors reflected and strategised on the group’s positioning and engagement in the year 2022. The group affirmed their priority to strengthen national and global commitments around education as some called for particular attention on response to COVID -19, protection of education and lifelong learning approach. Members also welcomed UNESCO’s report on the Futures of Education as it offered a vision that would allow to better respond to emerging challenges such as “economic inequality and climate change”.