Reopening schools after COVID-19 closures: webinars by UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank

Published in April 2020 in collaboration with UNICEF and the World Bank, the Framework for reopening of schools aims to support governments in strengthening distance learning and facilitating the reopening of schools, as part of the Global Education Coalition’s efforts to tackle the COVID-19 learning disruption.

Global school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic present an unprecedented risk to children’s education, protection and wellbeing. Interrupting education services also has serious, long-term consequences for economies and societies such as increased inequality, poorer health outcomes, and reduced social cohesion

Across countries leaders are grappling with difficult and uncertain trade-offs as lockdowns are easing and schools are reopening again. The Framework for reopening of schools and its latest Supplement (September, 2020) serves to inform the decision-making process on when and how to reopen schools, support national preparations and guide the implementation process, as part of the overall public health and education planning processes. Contextualization and continuous adaptation are necessary in order to respond to local conditions and meet each child’s learning, health and safety needs.

UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank have been organizing a joint webinar series around the different facets of this topic to address, among others, technical issues such as resurgence; academic and pedagogical considerations such as curriculum prioritization and remote assessment; school leadership and management; hybrid learning; and the use of technological platforms for remote learning.

Webinar #13 – What’s next? Lessons on education recovery
Tuesday 13 July 2021, 11:00-13:00 EST

The webinar will present the results of a new Survey of National Education Responses to COVID-19, jointly conducted by UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and most recently the OECD. The survey provides the latest snapshot of the COVID-19 impact on various aspects related to the education systems, as well as the policies implemented to assess and remediate them, including strategies to ensure equity and safe reopening of schools for all. The information in the survey has been collected through two iterations in 2020 which was captured in an initial report. Responses to the third iteration in February-April 2021 are captured in the new joint report.

Concept note

Webinar #12: Leveraging data to end learning poverty: Towards a global partnership for learning data
Thursday 1 July 2021, 9:30-11:30 EST

This webinar will introduce the latest country-level estimates of the World Bank-UIS learning poverty indicator. This update will be the first since the initial launch of the measure on October 2019, and will bring more recent data from PASEC and TIMSS, and a new regional learning assessment program that took place in East Asia, SEA-PLM.

Webinar #11: Costing Learning in the Post-COVID Era
Tuesday 23 February 2021

Significant attention has been paid to reimagining education as we move towards a post-COVID era. In need of effective usage of education budget/funding to build education back better, the next webinar will focus on how to cost learning in the post-COVID era, discussing how to estimate the cost of school reopening, what costing tools are available and the factors to take into consideration when budgeting for education under these changing circumstances.

Webinar #10: Hybrid learning approaches
Wednesday 16 December 2020
The webinar on 16 December will focus on the delivery and effectiveness of hybrid and remote learning modalities and intends to share experiences from countries grappling with decisions to open or close their school systems. The event will not only discuss issues related to inclusion and effectiveness but will also address how hybrid approaches can be best implemented.

Webinar #9: Learning assessments and school reopening
Tuesday 24 November 2020
The webinar will focus on learning assessments in the process of reopening schools, taking a closer look at diverse experiences in assessing students’ potential learning loss as they return to school.

Webinar #8 - What have we learnt? Overview of findings from a survey of ministries of education on national responses to COVID-19
Wednesday 4 November 2020
As part of the coordinated global education response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank have conducted a survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures. In this webinar, the results from these two rounds of data collection will be showcased, sharing the lessons learnt from government responses to school closures from pre-primary to secondary education.

Webinar #7 - Sharing experiences of school reopening from developing countries
Thursday 7 October 2020
The webinar will focus on reopening schools in developing countries, taking a closer look at the challenges and diverse responses of governments in different parts of the world.

Webinar #6 - The latest evidence on the reopening of schools
Thursday 27 August 2020
The webinar will share the latest evidence emerging from the process of reopening of schools around the world. The discussion will address how governments are dealing with the learning loss resulting from school closures and how they are ensuring inclusive reopening also for the most marginalized learners

Webinar #5 - High-stakes decision making on students' progression and pathways in the COVID-19 era
Monday 29 June 2020
This session aims to share country experiences with different approaches to adapting high-stakes decision making for students to the COVID-19 context, including the considerations that guided the choice of approach, challenges and successes to date, equity impacts, and implications for future rounds of high-stakes decision making.

Webinar #4 - Reaching the most marginalized
Wednesday 24 June 2020
This session reviews strategies to ensure inclusive school reopening for the most marginalized children building on the UNICEF note: Inclusive School Reopening: Supporting the Most Marginalized Children to go to School. Country examples will focus on how to support girls, children with disabilities, ethnic and linguistic minority groups, migrants, IDPs and refugees, etc to get back to school and stay in school.

Webinar #3 - Well-being
Monday 15 June 2020
A discussion on psycho-social support, protection and health promotion practices, focused on country examples, will provide insights on promoting children’s health and well-being in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Webinar #2 - Safe school operations
Thursday 11 June 2020
A review the newest evidence on the safety of re-opening schools and highlights of country-level actions on operational safety, building on the Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Schools as well as the Framework for Reopening Schools.

Webinar #1 - Learning
Monday 8 June 2020
The Webinar hosted a panel discussion on approaches to assessing the learning that occurred during the crisis, ensuring a smooth continuity of curriculum implementation and supporting teachers to cope with curriculum transition.

Organized in partnership with