Report launch: Education for the most marginalised post-Covid-19
With the support of EdTech Hub, members of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D have worked hard with colleagues across the world over the last six months to craft an innovative and practical report on how governments can learn from their experiences of Covid-19 to create resilient education systems that use digital technologies wisely, effectively and appropriately. We are all very excited to see this now published.
The report was based in part on extensive consultations with a group of 43 women and 44 men from 34 countries who contributed their insights and experiences, as captured in this word cloud designed by Paul Spiesberger:
The report is published in three acts:
- Act One: Executive summary (a 40 minute .mp3 audio file of the Executive Summary is also available, and French, Portuguese and Spanish versions are currently in production)
- Act Two: The complete report
- Act Three: Fourteen guidance notes on specific themes of relevance, such as Resilient and Sustainable Energy Solutions and Inclusion and Accessible Learning for People with Disabilities.
The report’s recommendations focus on five main areas (shown in green in the diagram with which this post begins):
- A whole society approach: delivering equity in education
- Enabling access for all: building appropriate resilient infrastructures for education
- Being context-specific: technologies and content
- Ensuring appropriate pedagogies: the practices of teaching and learning
- Making wise use of technology: security, privacy, and data
Pilot projects using digital technologies for education should not be done where they are easiest to do and are most likely to succeed, but instead with and among the poorest and most marginalised, where the circumstances are most challenging, and where most innovation and creativity is required to help them succeed.
Tim Unwin
The report, which is published under a Creative Commons – Attribution 4.0 (CC BY) license, and was developed and written by a core team of seven people (Tim Unwin, Alicja Pawluczuk, Azra Naseem, Christopher Yoo, Mohamed Shareef, Paul Spiesberger, and Paul West — assisted by Juliette Unwin, Leon Gwaka and Müge Haseki).
They were supported by a distinguished advisory board comprising: Alex Wong (ITU, Switzerland), Bitange Ndemo (ICT Champion and University of Nairobi, Kenya), Caroline Wright (DG BESA, UK), John Nasasira (Head of 4thIR Task Force, Uganda), Keith Krueger (CEO Consortium for School Networking, USA), Mike Trucano (World Bank, USA), Vanessa Dreier (GIZ, Germany), and Waleed Al Ali (Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Initiatives, UAE). We also worked closely with David Hollow and Jamie Proctor from EdTech Hub.
Many people contributed to the report, and the team is particularly grateful to colleagues in the following UN agencies and other organisations, especially for their help in crafting the guidance notes:
Please visit the Report Homepage to access all parts of the report.
Further details of the development and contents of the Report are available on the ICT4D site here.
