Ongoing research and literature are undertaken and written as you read these lines. The jury is still out on how the pandemic will have affected the way we teach, the way we will teach and how societies should move forward to provide the best education to their children.

Issues

The sudden need for education to be delivered online in the first year of the pandemic highlighted a variety of issues. Lack of preparation to cope with the almost overnight rush into online environments for teaching highlighted the following:

-the “digital divide” in situations where under privileged students had difficulty to access teaching;

-the subsequent debate over hybrid teaching models: in-class and online teaching delivered alternatively to accommodate student numbers in classrooms while respecting distancing rules;

-the crucial importance of ensuring that digital spaces are safe spaces, protecting rights to privacy of students and teachers, etc.

The effect of the pandemic on education is undeniable, not just the academic side (discussions on pedagogies, methodologies, delivery, teacher training), or technical side (equipment, networks, support), but also the impact in the very core of our societies, families, and communities.

A global effort

Education cannot be viewed in isolation; it is not solely about the teaching and learning. Education sustains the fabric of society: families, services, work, innovation, economy, progress… All members of society are actors in education; education shapes lives, families, communities, societies, it shapes the world.

Teachers, technology and “new school”

The UNESCO published a call for action in 2020 “Education in a post COVID world: Nine ideas for public action” where education, development and human rights are placed at the heart of a humanistic education. Technology is very present in a call for connectivity, access to technologies for teachers and students, and the re-thinking of pedagogies and methodologies in this “new reality”. The document gives credit to the value of teachers as professionals and the importance of collaboration; the participation of students and young people as the actors for change; and the importance in maintaining physical spaces provided by schools. All these taking place within a framework that encourages finding new ways of “doing school” at a time when both supporting and the support from families and communities is fundamental to navigate the pandemic.