Recovery, building resilience and reimagining education require evidence-based assessment of the lessons learned from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Under the Global Education Coalition initiative, UNESCO in collaboration with the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the European Commission launched in August 2020 a joint study entitled Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS) aiming to contribute to this effort by providing the data that can build an evidence base for successful recovery and innovative models of learning.
REDS focuses on acquiring scientifically collected first-hand information from countries, schools, teachers and students in times of school closures. The study was designed to serve as a valuable source of information for evaluating the extent to which education systems have been challenged in their pursuit of SDG 4 targets as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, in particular targets 4.1 and 4.a, and what measures/settings were perceived as effective to mitigate its impact on education.
Participating countries
Burkina Faso, Denmark, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Slovenia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Uzbekistan.
Benefits of conducting REDS
- Learn how countries and schools are prepared for distance learning in times of school closures, as well as during a subsequent reopening phase
- Gain insights on the impact of educational disruptions, as well as factors that influence the success of distance learning for students across countries
- Collect valuable data from countries, schools, teachers, and students that can provide education stakeholders with information for evidence-based decision-making
- Improve understanding of the students most at risk as a result of educational disruption, to support the construction of resilient education systems for the future
- Strengthen gender equality and empower teachers, based on first-hand information from schools and teachers collected in a scientific manner
REDS international report
The REDS International Report provides a systemic, multi-perspective and comparable picture of the impact of COVID-19 on secondary education (grade 8) in 11 countries, structured around the following topics:
- Impact of the pandemic on classroom teaching and learning
- Communication, feedback and assessment
- Help and support for teaching and learning
- Well-being of students and teachers
- Transitioning students back to school
- Academic progress, preparedness for future disruptions, and persisting changes
- Inequalities in teaching and learning during the pandemic
REDS data
REDS data is unique, collected from 21,063 students, 15,004 teachers and 1,581 school principals from most regions, allowing for more in-depth cross-sectional analyses of the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning.
- - Browse the REDS database
- - Read the User Guide for the international database
Resources
- Responses to educational disruption survey (REDS) brochure
- Responses to educational disruption survey (REDS): call for funding
- Launch of the REDS International Report:
- Watch the event recording in English, French, and Spanish
- Read the key takeaways
Contact
If you are interested in policy analysis or knowledge exchange using REDS data, please contact Huong Le at h.le-thu@unesco.org.