As I write this contribution, we are in the midst of escalating military attacks in the heart of Europe, with accounts of human suffering among civilians, potentially changing the course of history.
This strikes as we struggle to emerge from a global health crisis.
The interventions heard since this morning all ring the alarm on the devastating consequences of this pandemic on children and youth. It is an emotional, social, academic and economic toll – in short, a deep human recession.
Six months into the pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had warned of a generational catastrophe, urging governments to reopen schools as quickly and safely as possible. The term has stayed in our vocabulary.
Coming from the perspective of the UN agency charged with education at all levels, I wish to share a few further insights into lessons emerging from this pandemic, and why they are a clarion call for transformation.
Today, two years into the pandemic, schools have reopened in a majority of countries after closures that ranged from a world average of 20 weeks to more than a full school year in many Latin American countries and, in some cases, beyond that, such as in Uganda where schools were shut for 80 weeks.
At the peak of the crisis, 90% of the world’s student population – over 1.5 billion learners – were locked out of schools. This is without historical parallel. School reopenings do not equate with the end of a crisis – it would be dangerous to consider that back to school is back to normal. Over 400 million students in some 40 countries are still learning in hybrid mode, demanding adjustments in teaching and learning. The scars of this experience run deep.
UNESCO estimates that 24 million children may never make it back to school, swelling out of school numbers. Poverty, child labour, early marriage and unintended teenage pregnancies are all factors shrinking the right to education.
A joint report with UNICEF and the World Bank estimates that the number of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries who are unable to read or understand a simple story could reach up to 70 percent, from the already dramatic 53%.[1] This same report estimates that the pandemic could cost this generation of students close to $17 trillion in lifetime earnings.
We are not paying the price of inaction over the period, but of a pre-existing crisis that has collided with a global pandemic, laying bare deep fault lines in how education is managed and conducted.
The technology conundrum
At stunning pace, governments everywhere reacted nearly overnight to pivot entire education systems to a distance learning modus operandi, using a mix of low to high tech, from radio and television to online platforms. This innovation and agility cannot be shunned – it was a race to keep learning afloat. But it would be disingenuous to say that technology saved the day and holds a golden key to universalize access and bring home better report cards.
We caution against the over-reliance on technology for learning and the uncritical acceptance that the digital transformation of education is desirable, inevitable and a pillar of educational resilience. Overwhelming evidence goes against the oft-heard mantra that technology will enable education to “leap-frog” to a better future. The “anywhere, anytime” learning sometimes associated with technology has actually proven elusive.
For nearly 500 million learners it was a solution that never started and for millions more, one that quickly broke down. Half the world’s population lack a functional internet connection. Over 700 million people don’t have access to electricity. In many low-income countries, less than 10% of children and adolescents are connected, against 90% in high-income ones. The cost of devices – even the cheapest available smartphone - and mobile plans – is simply prohibitive for poor families.
When schools shut, our global study exposing the gendered impact of school closures,[2] further points out that the gender digital divide significantly constrained girls’ ability to learn online.
We saw digital inequalities play out everywhere, including in the world’s most advanced countries.
Beyond the hardware dimension, many other variables further prevented Ed tech from being a ready-to-go solution: teachers’ readiness to use technology – only half of middle-income countries offered training on digital skills during the pandemic; available space to learn at home, the ability of families to support their children’s learning; the economic pressures…
Development impacts beyond education
This is why school closures come with cascading effects that supercharge inequalities. This was far more than deprivation of education. Globally, about 370 million children missed out on school meals and essential health services. Hunger and poor physical and mental health will also make it harder for children to return to class, and to learn when they are back.
Our surveys found that in many low and middle countries, girls shouldered an even greater burden of domestic responsibilities, while boys’ participation in learning was often limited by the need to earn an income.
Prolonged isolation, fear, loss and other factors have brought issues of mental health to the forefront. Our joint Responses to Educational Disruption Survey[3] found that 50% of students interviewed felt overwhelmed by the pandemic, with the most vulnerable students expressing a loss of confidence in their ability to learn. Various studies from the US, the UK and by the OECD report increases in depression, anxiety, mental health emergencies and suspected suicide attempts.
And although global data is limited, evidence shows that cyberbullying has been on the rise, with girls between the age of 11 and 13 increasingly at risk of being targeted by online sexual predators. In short, the COVID-19 generation has been faced with two years of tremendous uncertainty and disruption in their lives. This is a generation that could see inequalities and poverty increase. And it is a generation growing up with the anxiety of climate change; with rapid digital transformation affecting every aspect of life and creating new divides; with an increase in intolerance fueled by social media, and with a loss of trust between people and institutions.
Tackling the recovery with vision: Futures report
What are the implications of all this? What has to be put in march for this generation to recover and thrive? Education is their right and the strongest anchor to shape a sustainable future. The crisis of the past two years has magnified the shortcomings of education systems.
The urgency of the learning recovery has to be tackled through a much bolder and braver rethinking of education – of its purposes, its contents and delivery models.
Times of crisis call for vision, for acts of faith, just like those that founded the United Nations or that saw the genesis of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. At several turning points in recent history, UNESCO has spearheaded an exercise to set out a renewed vision for educational transformation and encourage research and policy change.
As my friend Professor Reimers has already evoked, our Futures of Education report,[4] under an International Commission led by the President of Ethiopia, offers such a vision as the basis for reimaging our futures together. Interestingly, it was planned before the pandemic. It calls for a new social contract in education to rebalance our relationships with each other, with technology and with the planet. It makes the case for pedagogies that emphasize cooperation and solidarity, not competition, and for curricula that prize ecological, intercultural and interdisciplinary learning. Such a social contract is grounded in two principles: ensuring the right to quality education throughout life; and strengthening education as a public endeavour and a common good.
In a world that remains deeply interdependent despite escalating tensions, we more than ever need education to build personal and collective capacities for transformation. This is not a utopia – it provides a direction to guide a human-centered recovery.
UNESCO has been setting the ground for transformative education, through education for sustainable development and global citizenship, for health and well-being, to empower students with the values and knowledge to act for positive change – to protect our endangered environment, to reject discrimination on and offline, and strengthen peace and non-violence.
Education is a dynamic process of interaction with the world – our response to the current education emergency cannot be piecemeal. Learning from the detrimental impacts of school closures, we must get priorities right and seize the opportunity to steer the recovery in the direction of inclusion, equity and sustainability.
Key dimensions of the recovery mission
I see a few gold standards to make this happen. As the pandemic has demonstrated everywhere, schools are far more than a locus for learning. They are spaces for growing together, social interaction, protection, nutrition and essential services. I have evoked the academic and psychological toll of closures.
The first step of an inclusive recovery is to get all kids back to school and learning, in safe environments. Every school needs the capacity to assess learning losses and put in place remedial programmes – whether through targeted instruction, consolidating the curriculum or extending instructional time.
But a successful recovery has to go beyond the academic, especially for the most vulnerable children, acting on all the barriers that keep them out of school or not learning. Comprehensive school health and nutrition programmes, including school feeding, are essential to support vulnerable children’s education, health and overall well-being, particularly in times of crisis.
This is why UNESCO is working with UN partners, such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme and WHO to step up school health and nutrition, and has also joined the School Meals Coalition, to give every child in need the opportunity to receive a healthy meal in school by 2030, together with other essential school health interventions.
Second, teachers and the teaching profession. Teachers carry tremendous responsibility – they are the center stage actors of this recovery just as they have been on the frontlines throughout the crisis. They have demonstrated incredible resilience and dedication. Now they must be better recognized and supported, and directly involved in the design and use of technology in their practice.
This brings me to how we steer the digital transformation for inclusion and equity. Education and knowledge cannot be treated as private commodities. They are global common goods that provide collective benefits. Supported by Dubai Cares, we gathered experts and led consultations to chart a new course for connected learning. The result is the Global Declaration on Connectivity for education that puts forward three key principles: centering innovation on the most marginalized; expanding investing in open, free and high-quality digital contents; and supporting pedagogical innovation. This provides a roadmap for unlocking the potential of technology to advance inclusive education, on the principles of human rights and equity.
Towards the Summit and beyond
Our challenge today is humanistic and ethical: we have a collective responsibility towards the COVID-19 generation to make education a public good and involve youth in protecting, defending it and co-creating a new model.
The United Nations Secretary General has called for a Transforming Education Summit next September to unite world leaders, all education stakeholders and young people around these fundamental questions. It should catalyze a movement around education.
The Summit aims to make education a top political priority for the recovery and beyond. This will take a surge in financing. Education’s share of total public spending has remained stagnant over the past 20 years, at about 14 percent. The funding deficit could hit 200 billion dollars a year, up from a pre-pandemic estimate of 148 billion dollars without investment in re-enrolment and remedial programs. This is the urgency to boost education’s share in recovery plans. On average, developed countries allocate 3 percent; a figure that drops to one percent in lower income countries. Education is not a standalone goal – it is a societal endeavour and it needs all society behind it.
Children and youth themselves living in most deprived circumstances – in conflict-affected situations – are asking for education, for this human right. This is their hope and future.
Parents are ready to make enormous sacrifices to keep their children in school. This is why the Global Compact launched by Pope Francis in 2020 carries such meaning to UNESCO. It is about solidarity and reimagining our future together. Education must be the main driver for building societies based on solidarity, respect and tolerance – societies that value and promote an ethics of care.
As his Holiness affirmed at the inter-religious dialogue last October at the Vatican, “All change requires an educational process aimed at developing new solidarity and a more welcoming society”. This is the new grammar we need for the coming years. So let us here – through research, advocacy and collaboration – irrigate this transformation
Post-script: Transforming Education Summit
Since this workshop took place, the global context has become all the more fragile with the war in Ukraine taking a heavy toll on civilians and on infrastructure, with close to 2700 educational institutions having suffered from bombing and shelling.[5] Reflecting once again our interdependence, the consequences are felt well beyond European frontiers, with rising food and energy prices and the forecasts of a global recession looming.
It is in this context that world leaders came together at the United Nations Transforming Education summit in September 2022, as mentioned in the above piece. For the first time, education was elevated to the top of political agendas in the face of a crisis demanding transformative measures to recover learning losses and equip all learners with the knowledge, skills and competences they need to live in dignity and shape more sustainable and peaceful futures.
Leading up to the summit, 150 countries organized broad consultations moving education into a more democratic space by connecting policy-makers, teachers, students, civil society and other partners. The results of these consultations are telling and encouraging because they reflect an awareness that business as usual is failing too many learners. Three quarters of countries referenced measures to offset the costs of education for economically vulnerable communities. Some 80 percent of countries acknowledged in-service training and professional development as a key determinant of teacher motivation and retention. Interestingly, rethinking curricula content and methods was reflected in 80% of statements. Many countries placed strong emphasis on competency-based and interdisciplinary approaches. Digital learning was referenced in 80% of commitments, including to universalize broadband internet connectivity.[6]
At the Summit itself, 65 heads of state and government shared their national visions and statements of commitment. The outcomes are crystallized in six calls to action that connect recovery and transformation, break silos and nurture local ecosystems. Their success depends on the mobilization of a range of public and private partners, on financing, and of course on youth and teachers.
The call on foundational learning commits to halving the global share of children who can’t read or understand a simple text by age ten. The Greening Partnership initiated by UNESCO aims to make every learner climate ready, with a focus on schools, teachers, curricula and communities. The initiative on Gateways to Public Digital Learning aims to ensure access to open and free national learning platforms. Commitments were also made to catalyze transformative action for gender equality and to do justice to the staggering 222 million children youth affected by crisis whose education is on the line.
All these calls for action rely on raising the status of the teaching profession, ensuring they have decent working conditions and continuous training and learning opportunities to transform how they teach.
The Secretary-General’s vision statement on Transforming Education[7] to meet our higher purposes calls for action in four areas:
- First, it stresses the need to ensure learning environments that support the development of all learners – ones that promote inclusion, prevent and address all forms of violence; support learners’ nutrition, physical and mental health.
- Secondly, it stresses that teachers are the backbone of all good education systems. To fulfill their essential roles, however, change is needed in how societies view and value teachers, and how teachers approach their roles and fulfill their responsibilities, including through broadening their capacity, agency and autonomy.
- Thirdly, the statement calls for harnessing the digital revolution for the benefit of public education by unlocking the three keys of digital learning – connectivity, capacities and content.
- Finally, it appeals for investing more, more equitably and more efficiently in education because put simply, the cost of not financing education is much higher than the cost of financing it.
Such transformation requires collective leadership – from political leaders to parents, students, teachers and the public at large.
Young people, in particular, are at the heart of this effort. Youth were the face of this Summit and presented their own Declaration[8] to the Secretary-General that presents a common vision for transforming education, coming out of consultations with nearly half a million youth from 170 countries.
The Declaration sets out the stakes: “If we are to survive and thrive in planetary peace and righteous equality, then education is our primary source of hope and resolution. In order to redeem and remake the state of the world, we must first transform the state of education”.
While making demands to be fully engaged in decision-making on transforming education, youth make it clear that they are already at the “forefront of driving change, pioneering innovations, mobilizing our peers and communities and working from the ground up to transform education”.
Their Declaration captures all the links between education, climate justice, gender equality, inclusion, jobs, and sustainable development.
The Summit was a turning point in the reflection it generated, the commitments made at the highest level, and the engagement of youth. Everyone has a role in keeping the momentum so that education stays firmly on political agenda as a human right, a public good and a force that is transformational for individuals and societies.
[1] World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF. The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery (2021).
[2] UNESCO. When Schools Shut: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures (2021).
[3] UNESCO, International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education: international evidence from the Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (2021).
[4] UNESCO. Reimagining our Futures Together. A new social contract for education. Report from the International Commission on the Futures of Education (2021).
[5] Ukraine Ministry of Education and Science (14 October). UNESCO compiles daily assessments of damages based on this source.
[6] Analysis conducted by UNESCO based on national statements and consultations. Analysis of National Statements of Commitment (sdg4education2030.org)
[7] “Transforming Education: An urgent political imperative for our collective future. Vision Statement of the Secretary-General on Transforming Education”. United Nations Transforming Education Summit 2022. Vision Statement of Secretary-General on Transforming Education | United Nations
[8] Youth Declaration on Transforming Education. United Nations Transforming Education Summit 2022.