Page 6 - Education Feature Issue 1 2021

The rate at which the Coronavirus has travelled has
❝The current crisis is 9 delivered a powerful reminder of how tightly
humanity is linked together. We must address the
reminding us how forces that pull us apart. COVID-19 has shown us the extent
to which our societies exploit power imbalances and our
crucial public education global system exploits inequalities. The underlying reality is
that we are biologically all citizens of a single planet. A
is in societies, global response to this global problem is the only path to a
solution. The Commission calls for renewed commitments to
communities, and in international cooperation and multilateralism, together with a

individual lives ❞ revitalised global solidarity that has empathy and an
appreciation of our common humanity at its core.

CONCLUSION
Promote student, youth and children’s History is being written with great speed and we are faced
4 participation and rights. Intergenerational with choices and decisions that will define the futures of
justice and democratic principles should education. When we look at responses to this crisis, we find
compel us to prioritise the participation of students and original and creative ideas coming from all corners of the
young people broadly in the co-construction of world. In fact, in some instances, it is those who are most
desirable change. Students should be given a leading marginalised and disadvantaged who have shown both the
voice in designing the learning opportunities and greatest care for others - and the greatest resourcefulness
learning communities they return to when schools get and ingenuity. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the fact
back to full functionality. that innovation and creativity are broadly distributed and not
the exclusive territory of select, well-resourced centres. We
Protect the social spaces provided by schools have to learn from and support the responses coming from
5 as we transform education. The school as a teachers, students and communities - for in them lies the
physical space is indispensable. Traditional potential for transforming education during and after the
classroom organisation must give way to a variety of present crisis. n
ways of ‘doing school’ but the school as a separate
space-time of collective living, specific and different
from other spaces of learning, must be preserved.

Make free and open source technologies ❝Schools are also
6 available to teachers and students. Open
educational resources and open access digital places where we can
tools must be supported. Education cannot thrive with
ready-made content built outside of the pedagogical encounter others not like
space and outside of human relationships between
teachers and students. Nor can education be dependent ourselves, others whom
on digital platforms controlled by private companies.
we learn from and with,
Ensure scientific literacy within the others who expand our
7 curriculum. This is the right time for deep
reflection on curricula, particularly as we understanding of the
struggle against the denial of scientific knowledge and
global tapestry of ways of
actively fight misinformation.

Protect domestic and international financing of being human ❞
8 public education. The pandemic has the power
to undermine several decades of advances.
National governments, international organisations, and
all education and development partners must recognise
the need to strengthen public health and social services These nine ideas are extracted from the publication produced
but simultaneously mobilise around the protection of by the International Commission on the Futures of Education.
public education and its financing. https://en.unesco.org/

Education | February 2021 | 4