Students, teachers and parents from UNESCO's associated schools envision futures of education

Over 620 members of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) from over 80 countries came together to share their experiences of learning and living in confinement, in a webinar organized on 12 May 2020, organized in collaboration with the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE).  

During the conversation ASPnet members, National Coordinators, teachers, students and parents shared their observations feelings and hopes for the future during this webinar that focused on two topics: the experience of remote learning, and reimagining the future of education based on this experience.

> A full report and video recording of the event is available here.

Here is a glimpse of some Ideas on the future of education from the ASPnet community:

• “With 13 million children out of school in Nigeria before the pandemic we should not go back to normal.”
  Aisha Bunu, Student, 14 years old, Nigeria.


• “I believe this [crisis] is an opportunity to think big, to be brave and to really make some bold decisions, when it comes to how we organize our education and learning.”
  Anne-Fleur Lurvink, English Teacher, the Netherlands.


• “This crisis has truly shown me that the nature of learning is first and foremost rooted in social interaction and processes. That is why I believe social and emotional learning should be given a bigger emphasis in education.”
  Si Gao, Chinese Literature Teacher, China


• “Isn’t the solution to put [students] at the heart of change? We could rely on this autonomy gained during this health crisis and their dynamism to build something different. I think that together we have become aware of the interactions between health, education, inequality and the environment.”
  Jean-Marc Septsault, Technology Teacher & Parent of two, France.


• “For many countries that were already in conflict, this pandemic has just made a bad situation worse. We need to think about the society that we need to be and what kind of education that we should give our children to create that society”,
  Ms Aseel Jasim, Parent of four, Iraq​.