COVID-19 education crisis - Supporting teachers in distance learning and on school reopening

The International Task force on Teachers for Education 2030 (TTF) in collaboration with UNESCO Bangkok, Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education and UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office, will host a  Regional Virtual Meeting for Asia-Pacific Region (via Zoom).

Throughout the school closures, governments have adopted various measures to ensure learning continuity. In some cases, this has meant working with infrastructure constraints, such as a lack of connectivity or devices to ensure on-line learning. Teachers themselves have also been impacted by the crisis professionally and personally. As countries plan to reopen schools, the role of teachers, their knowledge of their learners’ needs, and expertise and experience in teaching practice are critical to developing school reopening plans. Moving forward, designing context-sensitive resilience strategies will need to include the voices of teachers, teacher educators and their representatives.

The meeting seeks to provide a platform to engage in dialogue on the main challenges and potential and planned interventions related to teachers and teaching, including the proposed reopening of schools.

In particular, the objectives of the meeting are:

• to understand the challenges faced by countries in addressing issues related to teachers and teaching while designing education responses to COVID-19;
• to share promising practices to support teachers, including training and psycho-social support;
• to highlight challenges and opportunities in the reopening of schools.

Some of the main questions to be covered will include:

• How are governments ensuring adequate training and support for in-service teachers to deliver effective distance/online instruction? How prepared are education systems in deploying online platforms and supporting teachers in using digital technology?
• How are governments supporting teachers working in areas with poor or no internet connectivity?
• What are the challenges and opportunities for the reopening of schools and how to best include teachers in responses? How should governments support teachers to meet their professional and personal needs?
• What measures are in place or planned that consider vulnerable populations (e.g. girls, disabled learners, cultural and linguistic minorities, displaced persons) to ensure equity in teaching and learning and mitigate dropout?

The meeting is open to TTF member countries and organisations as well as non-members. TTF focal points, representatives of Ministries of Education, and other relevant education stakeholders working on teachers issues in the region are invited to join the meeting.

You can register here. 

To participate in the meeting, go to https://zoom.us/j/94610962114 (Password: 964616)

For more information, download the concept note

Meeting recording