This article is written by Ayooshee Dookhee, programme specialist for Governance and Policy at the World Economic Forum and Apolitical Insider Fellow. This article has been edited by Andreea Bocaneala, Apolitical Insider Fellow and communication advisor for a female MP in Romania’s parliament.

Education has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, leaving 1.38 billion learners impacted by school closures worldwide.

As lockdown measures ease in some parts of the world, school gates have started to reopen. But such a hiatus in learning activities could have deep, long-term consequences especially for children of low-income households. Some argue that schools were never entirely shut; some remained open for vulnerable pupils and children of essential workers while others quickly replaced physical classrooms with online learning activities.

Yet, not every child has benefited from this approach equally. This is because not every student has had reliable Internet access, or a household computer, or fully present parents who can home-school. Some may have had access to reliable Internet and a household computer but lacked the adequate digital literacy to embrace the new reality of online learning. The pandemic has unearthed the plethora of systemic issues the education sector faced prior to school closures and no policy quick fix is going to solve this.

Good things happen in the middle

Access to education is low in many developing nations but similar inequalities exist also within the world’s richest and most developed countries — and Covid-19 only amplified them. If historically education has been seen as the great equaliser, bridging progress and prosperity for individuals and countries, then now is the time to honour it.

Education policy would benefit tremendously if smaller stories and experiences happening in countries all over the world were not ignored

The rapid shift towards online learning certainly opens up discussion on its effectiveness, and whether the design of future education infrastructure should adopt digital learning as a default. In a recent CNBC interview, Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of BYJU, the world’s largest Education Technology platform, said: “it is not that [education] will stay 100% online, neither will it go 100% offline, but good things happen in the middle…”

Indeed good things can happen in the middle but the challenge will be how. Laudable steps have been taken by governments worldwide to find creative ways to educate young learners – from television and radio programming to platforms such as YouTube, but complex challenges lie ahead.

The path to a more inclusive education system

The first challenge to rebuilding an education system that is inclusive and fit for a post-pandemic “new normal” will be to bring educators to the policy table.

I recently spoke to Andria Zafirakou, winner of the 2018 Global Teacher Prize who teaches some of the most disadvantaged and ethnically diverse children at Alperton Community secondary school in Brent, England. I asked her how she felt about the divide between policymakers and educators, to which she replied: “our voices are not really heard”.

According to her, education policy would benefit tremendously if smaller stories and experiences happening in countries all over the world were not ignored. She cites a couple of examples — from the effect of Ramadan on young learners to young girls who also are primary carers in their households. These experiences underpin the learning trajectory of many children, and now exacerbated by the pandemic, they will need to feed into how policies are designed towards a just transition back to school.

The second challenge will be to rebuild an education system based on data — on data about learning needs, including the social and emotional needs of children. Research from the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa has shown that school closures had a number of secondary and long-lasting negative impacts — from a rise in school dropouts to children at high risk of abuse. Gathering data on just how much the pandemic is altering behaviours in children will shed light on the next steps.

Often schools are seen primarily in economic terms whereby a child acquires a set of skills that will increase their competitiveness in the workforce. However, Covid-19 is pushing policy circles to redefine the role of schools. One underappreciated and underfunded area is the arts and creative subjects, which allow for self-expression often after transformative experiences. It is possible that children living through the pandemic [become perceptive of their parents’ and carers’ anxieties](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20%2930097-3/fulltext) and can internalise them. It is thus mandatory that any policy that will shape the current and future transition adapt to these new norms.

Preparing for the next shock

A third challenge will be to not hurry the rapid uptake of education technology without fully addressing its shortcomings. The most profound implication of school closures relates to equity — of both resources and access.

Policymakers, educators and technology companies have a rare window of opportunity to take radical action

While there is a clear need, and now opportunity to advance personalized learning through technology, just over 40 per cent of the world’s population remains unconnected. Calls for a new education imperative predate the pandemic but the pandemic should definitely not dictate the future of the sector.

What the pandemic has taught us is the significance of resilient and adaptive societies — starting with young people. Technology alone cannot get us there but neither can an education system that is no longer fit for purpose.

Policymakers, educators and technology companies have a rare window of opportunity to take radical action. They can either invest in a transition back to learning that equips and empowers young learners with resilience, agility and creativity to navigate even tougher times or they can take a rain check until the next shock is here, and we find ourselves watching helplessly. — Ayooshee Dookhee

(Picture credit: Unsplash)