The 20th Session of the IITE Governing Board (GB) was held virtually on 20 May 2021. Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, the Chair of the IITE GB opened the Session by welcoming Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Education, Ms. Stefania Giannini, the representatives of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Board Members from all over the world with ten time zone differences and other participants of the Meeting. For the first time, the Governing Board invited 16 core Partners of IITE who were representing National Commissions for UNESCO of China and Republic of Mauritius, UN Agencies namely UNAIDS and ITU as well as public and private partners such as Huawei, China and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Malaysia.
In her statement, Ms. Stefania Giannini expressed her gratitude to the GB Members and the Government of the Russian Federation for continued support to the Institute, and emphasized the important role of IITE during and post COVID-19 pandemic. The Statements from the representatives of the Russian Federation included proposals, comments and commitment for supporting the Institute. Invited guests from the Member States as well as IITE’s collaboration partners made brief introductions and spoke about joint projects and activities with IITE. Members of the Governing Board noted an increase of collaboration partners and extrabudgetary funds for IITE. They approved the report by Mr. Tao Zhan, Director of IITE on the activities of the Institute during 2020-2021, financial report of the Institute and Programme work plan for 2021. GB Members stressed that IITE had made significant achievements in attracting new partners and increased visibility of IITE in supporting policy-makers, teachers, and students during the pandemic.
The UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) is administered by a Governing Board, which consists of 11 members appointed by the Director-General of UNESCO on a geographical distribution. Members are chosen for their eminence in the field and sit in a personal capacity. The current Chair of the Board is Dr Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) in UAE. At the 20th Session of IITE Governing Board, Professor Asha Kanwar, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada was elected as the Vice Chair of IITE Governing Board. The full list of all current members can be found here.
List of invited external partners
Director’s Report at the 20th GB meeting
Decisions of the Twentieth Session of IITE Governing Board