The global education sphere is re-imagining “education”. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities that exist within and between communities, providing a challenge for remote education to reach everyone, as well as an opportunity to bridge the divides that exist by addressing them head-on in the re-imaged education system we are in the midst of creating. A new global education system, leveraging ICT for knowledge and skills-development, has the potential to close intra- and international achievement and well-being gaps, as well as to advance the understanding and implementation of education as life-long learning for all of society.
The Center’s proposed plan includes designing educational modules with blended learning structures that address not only traditional academic subjects, but critical topics such as social emotional learning and well-being life skills, education for sustainable development, human rights, and global citizenship. Re-imagining education also means overcoming subject area silos to integrate different knowledge areas in order to solve problems. These modules can be run asynchronously to address the needs of, and cater to, different segments of the population. The educational material will not only be for school-going aged children, but also embody Sustainable Development Goals’ life-long learning opportunities. Various modules will be tailored to the learning and psychosocial needs and goals of school students, teachers, non-formal educators, parents, and education system decision makers. The diversified medium for content delivery can be via short videos followed by hands-on experiential activities with quick assessment elements to check for understanding. The modules will also present a repository of resources to support inquiry, independent study and continued learning. To reach more remote populations, simple messages on WhatsApp groups could be developed. Simple SMS-based texts can work on feature phones.
Contents developed through a Backward Design pedagogical approach will highlight the key takeaways and messages, helping to shape all corresponding project-based experiential learning models. Materials will range from environmental education, global economic projections, social justice concerns tied to the outbreak, well-being skills development, and health education starting from COVID-19 related issues to discussions on public health concerns and health systems, including consideration of health disparities amongst different populations. All content will have a cross-cutting objective of advancing psychosocial wellbeing and large-scale human flourishing.
