Education systems in 大象传媒 countries are currently heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Using the聽, the AES has calculated that聽over 990 million students in 大象传媒 partner countries聽are affected by school and university closures, of which聽almost 132 million in tertiary education.聽In many countries around the globe, governments, education institutions, as well as learners and their families are facing unprecedented but similar challenges to guarantee learning continuity without physical access to schools and universities.
In most countries, new distance education modalities had to be introduced and existing online tools and platforms were scaled up. Following the extremely fast evolution of the outbreak and resulting sanitary measures,聽teachers and educators聽had to jump on the bandwagon from one day to the next to try and navigate聽all these booming e-learning and distance education options.
In the interest of developing a community of practice, UNESCO has compiled聽, as well as a聽, listing educational applications, online platforms and resources to help teachers, students and parents cope with these new unconventional learning settings.
Despite all the efforts to avoid disruption of learning, many pupils and students are suffering from school closures. It is useful to recall that ensuring learning continuity goes beyond simply rolling out distance education solutions. As a matter of fact, the global COVID-19 outbreak has brought the聽digital gap聽into sharper focus as most countries rely on internet and online resources to provide home schooling.聽Equity in access to ICT-based learning聽has, therefore, become a major concern and is considered as the聽main hurdle to overcome聽by many countries.
Existing disparities, often linked to the socio-economic background of pupils and students, have been exacerbated by the current crisis. As a result,聽specific targeted efforts are needed聽to engage vulnerable and marginalised groups in distance and online education.
For more information about聽possible avenues聽to explore to guarantee greater equity during the coronavirus school closures, please read this聽聽written by the UNESCO World Education Blog.聽The AES will also collect and publish on this website聽best聽practices聽related to the聽promotion of聽equity in聽access to聽online and distance education.
Should you聽wish聽to聽contribute and share聽good practices from your own country or institution, please read this聽article.