News

Catch up on what’s happening in the world of global citizenship education.

311 results found

© Swiss Commission for UNESCO Découvrez les cinq projets sélectionnés par la Commission suisse pour l’UNESCO pour faire connaître l’éducation à la citoyenneté mondiale en Suisse 2020-09-27 L’éducation à la citoyenneté mondiale (ECM), en particulier dans ses dimensions non formelles et informelles, fait partie des thèmes prioritaires de la Commission suisse pour l’UNESCO. Elle a publié, en 2019, un Policy Brief intitulé « Éducation à la citoyenneté mondiale : Vers une citoyenneté active grâce à l’éducation politique avec une perspective globale dans les secteurs non formels et informels ». Jusqu’à présent, la Commission s’est consacrée à la présentation et la diffusion de ce document auprès de différents publics. L’année 2020, qui marque le début d’une nouvelle législature avec la nomination de nouveaux membres, est l’occasion de donner une forme plus concrète à cet engagement en faveur de l’ECM. L’objectif étant que la population vivant en Suisse, caractérisée par une forte diversité, s’engage au niveau de la société civile pour davantage d’égalité, d’équité et de responsabilité à l’échelle mondiale. Pour répondre à cet objectif, et compte tenu des contraintes liées au Coronavirus, la première activité lancée dans le cadre de cette nouvelle phase est le financement de projets novateurs qui permettent de faire connaître l’éducation à la citoyenneté mondiale à un large public. Les projets doivent être mis en œuvre dans le secteur de l’éducation non formelle et informelle et offrir des perspectives d’avenir pour développer et dynamiser davantage l’ECM en Suisse. Au travers de cet appel à projets, la Commission suisse pour l’UNESCO vise précisément à : promouvoir l’ECM, permettre de mieux l’appréhender, et renforcer l’engagement du public grâce à des projets concrets nés dans le contexte de la pandémie montrer dans quelle mesure l’ECM propose de nouvelles approches aux niveaux tant de la réflexion que de l’action, contribuant ainsi à la lutte contre la pandémie mondiale et ses conséquences sanitaires, sociales et économiques faire ressortir le potentiel de l’éducation non formelle et informelle pour l’ECM et appuyer les acteurs dans ces secteurs Il n’a pas été aisé de départager les nombreux projets soumis, qui présentaient tous un intérêt certain tout en abordant la thématique sous différents angles. Sur la base de critères liés au potentiel de faire connaître l’ECM, à l’originalité de l’idée, à la pertinence, l’efficacité et la faisabilité, la Commission a finalement sélectionné les cinq projets suivants: Beacons of participation (youpa) La section youpa de la Fédération suisse des parlements des jeunes contribue à faire entendre les voix de la jeune génération dans la politique suisse en encourageant les jeunes à s’intéresser à la politique, en les motivant et en les soutenant dans leur participation active. Le projet soutenu prévoit un « Speed debating » en 2 langues (visant 50 jeunes entre 12 et 25 ans) sur des thèmes de l’Agenda 2030, encadré par des politiciens et experts des différents domaines. Trois idées (beacons of participation) qui auront été discutées pendant les débats seront sélectionnées et diffusées sous la forme d’un flyer à un plus large public de jeunes. Digitale Demokratie Toolbox (Stiftung Risiko Dialog) La boîte à outils pour la démocratie numérique a été mise en place afin de faire mieux connaître au grand public les possibilités technologiques de participation numérique (« outils civiques »). Le financement de la Commission contribuera à la développer et la perfectionner en vue de faciliter la participation politique numérique des personnes vivant en Suisse, quelle que soit leur situation sociodémographique, permettre un échange numérique international sur des enjeux mondiaux, sensibiliser le public à la participation numérique, initier un débat sur la technologie civique, et renforcer l’engagement public à travers la participation en ligne. Policy Kitchen (foraus) Policy Kitchen est une méthode visant à inclure la population, et surtout les groupes traditionnellement exclus tels que les patients et les jeunes, dans les discussions sur divers thèmes de société. La Commission a financé l’un des workshops de la plateforme sur le thème : “My Data – My Health: Visions for the Use and Exchange of Personal Health Data in 2030”. Concrètement, le projet consiste en une discussion virtuelle entre citoyens et experts permettant de trouver des solutions innovantes à des défis concrets – en l’occurrence, celui de la digitalisation des données des patients. Les contributions des participants peuvent être retrouvées sur : https://www.policykitchen.com/group/39/about. Les meilleures idées, une fois retravaillées, seront diffusées à un plus large public. Dialogues citoyens (Gute Entwicklung) Le projet se fonde sur l’idée selon laquelle le dialogue renforce le sentiment de communauté, la créativité et la force d’innovation d’un groupe, permettant ainsi de créer une compréhension commune sur un sujet et d’agir ensemble. Dans le contexte du COVID, l’objectif est de fournir un cadre de réflexion autour de questions importantes apparues durant la crise et de faire émerger des idées, des approches et des réponses collectives. Pour ce faire, Gute Entwicklung organisera, en collaboration avec l’organisation Regio Basiliensis et Alles ist Dialog, des séries de dialogues citoyens. D’abord entre habitants de communes de régions frontalières, puis de cinq cantons. Enfin, une centaine de dialogue seront organisés au niveau national. La Commission financera la première série de dialogue dans les régions frontalières. Atelier sur les Objectifs de Développements Durables (International Scout Centre Kandersteg) Le projet du Centre scout international consiste à créer un atelier de trois heures sur les Objectifs de Développement Durable (Agenda 2030), qui sera offert durant un an à une centaine de groupes de jeunes venant séjourner au Centre. L’atelier sera conçu de manière à être facilement dupliqué et mis en œuvre dans d’autres contextes. Au travers de ces ateliers, les participants seront sensibilisés aux ODD, acquerront les outils nécessaires pour agir efficacement en faveur d’un monde meilleur, et seront encouragés à participer à des projets dans leur communauté afin de contribuer à la réalisation des ODD. Des informations sur l’avancement des cinq projets récompensés seront publiées régulièrement sur le site et le compte Twitter de la Commission. URL:https://www.unesco.ch/fr/erfahren-sie-mehr-ueber-die-fuenf-projekte-die-die-schweizerische-unesco-kommission-ausgewaehlt-hat-um-die-global-citizenship-education-in-der-schweiz-bekannter-zu-machen/ © UNESCO The UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities welcomes 54 new member cities from 27 countries 2020-09-24 23 September 2020, Hamburg. Today, 54 cities* from 27 countries will join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC). These cities are outstanding examples of how lifelong learning can become a reality at local level. They have proven that effective lifelong learning policies and practices can support the development of inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and contribute to the 2030 Agenda. Today’s new members bring the total number of cities within the UNESCO GNLC to 229 in 64 countries. The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), as coordinator of the network, admitted the new members following their nomination by the National Commissions for UNESCO in the concerned countries. A strong commitment to lifelong learning by the mayor and city administration is a key prerequisite for becoming a learning city. As part of their application process, potential UNESCO GNLC members must demonstrate a clear vision for providing lifelong learning opportunities for everyone in the community. Once admitted, cities are expected to take part in the activities of the network and to produce a biennial report outlining their achievements as learning cities. The new member cities will be presented in an online event on 23 September 2020. UIL Director David Atchoarena explains: ‘With unprecedented urgency, the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the necessity to build more resilient education systems for the future. With more than half of humanity living in urban areas, cities must be at the centre of this undertaking.’ ‘During the pandemic, UNESCO learning cities from around the world have shown that they are well placed to make lifelong learning a reality, also under harsh conditions,’ Mr Atchoarena continues. ‘I warmly welcome the new members of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and very much look forward to working with them on further advancing our goal of ensuring lifelong learning for all.’ BackgroundThe UNESCO GNLC is an international policy-oriented network geared towards knowledge production and sharing, peer learning and capacity-building. UNESCO GNLC members benefit from sharing lifelong learning policies and practices with other cities in the network, developing and exchanging knowledge on key challenges and solutions, taking part in training initiatives, and participation in regional and global events. Within the framework of the strategy for 2019–2021, the activities of the network focus on seven key priorities: education for sustainable development; equity and inclusion; educational planning, monitoring and evaluation; education for global citizenship; entrepreneurship; learning for health and well-being; and literacy. For further information, visit:Website of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning CitiesInformation about UNESCO learning cities’ responses to COVID-19 *Following a further review, one of the cities was removed from the list as it did not entirely fulfil all the required criteria. UIL apologizes for this oversight. URL:https://uil.unesco.org/lifelong-learning/learning-cities/unesco-global-network-learning-cities-welcomes-54-new-member © UNESCO Call for Exhibitions and Edutainment Content – Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2020 2020-09-24 Acquiring media and information literacy (MIL) competencies often takes place outside the classroom, through art, storytelling and entertainment. In the framework of Global MIL Week 2020, UNESCO is calling for exhibitions and edutainment content related to MIL to be showcased throughout the Week, in an effort to enable citizens to resist disinfodemic. Call for exhibitions Stakeholders in the field of media and information literacy (MIL), including museums, libraries, archives, academia, media organizations and private sector organizations, are invited to submit proposals for MIL-related exhibitions in the framework of Global MIL Week 2020. The exhibitions will be in line with the theme “Resisting Disinfodemic: Media and Information Literacy for Everyone and by Everyone”. Proposals should present good practices, historical content, social and real-life stories, and educational resources related to the topic. They should be integrated and packaged in the format of curated audiovisual materials, giving audience a virtual exhibition experience. Selected exhibitions will be showcased virtually on the main online platform of Global MIL Week 2020. Participants can access them through the virtual exhibition booths on the platform. Submit a proposal here, by 2 October 2020. Submitters of approved proposals will be contacted for submission of full exhibition content. Call for edutainment content MIL learning can be more enjoyable when done through a combination of education and entertainment. Global MIL Week 2020 calls for such edutainment content related to MIL, as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to the increasing need to build citizens’ resilience to the disinfodemic. Think how you could teach children, youth, adults and the elderly MIL skills in an informal and entertaining manner, create content, and share it with us. The accepted formats include song, video, poetry, meme, GIF, illustration, and dance. Give free reign to your creativity! Submit your content here, by 9 October 2020. UNESCO will publish and promote selected content on its social media channels. Under the theme “Resisting Disinfodemic: Media and Information Literacy for Everyone and, by Everyone”, Global MIL Week 2020 will respond to the exponentially increasing demand for MIL worldwide. It highlights the necessity of recognizing our shared interest in improving everyone’s competencies to interact with media, technology, and information, in order that they can be engaged in societies as critical-thinking citizens. It also underlines the pivotal role of MIL in fostering quality journalism, critical access to information and freedom of expression, which all have implications on how the war against disinformation can be overcome. Contact Alton Grizzle, a.grizzle@unesco.org(link sends e-mail) Xu Jing, ji.xu@unesco.org URL:https://en.unesco.org/news/call-exhibitions-and-edutainment-content-global-media-and-information-literacy-week-2020 A teacher and her students in class. Ecole Patti, Makalondi, Tilaberri Region, Niger. April 2017 Peace education: A key driver of change in Africa 2020-09-23 This post is the 9th in a blog series published in 2020 in the context of a collaboration between the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). September 21st marks the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 by the United Nations, this day is devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. It also showcases some of the initiatives that countries have put in place to end conflict (e.g. peace caravans, tree planting for peace, music concerts, sensitization on emerging forms of violence, etc.). This year’s theme is “Shaping Peace Together.” As we reflect on this theme, it is important to state from the onset that peace is a collaborative effort. No community or individual can achieve it alone. This draws attention to the importance of collaborative action in ending conflict and promoting peace throughout the world. This year is also the AU theme of ‘Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development’. Let’s remember that silencing the guns means quality education! Impact of conflicts on education When war erupts, education is the most adversely affected sector. Violent conflict continues to pose social-economic challenges to the African continent – destroying infrastructure, impacting teachers, swelling number of students out of school and impacting the most vulnerable. As of June 2019, 9,272 schools were closed or had become non-operational and almost 2 million children had been robbed of an education due to violence and insecurity in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.  A report published by UNICEF in August 2019 further stated that since 2017, there had been a surge in deliberate attacks against students, teachers and schools in West and Central Africa, leading to a tripling in school closures in the last year, which pushed more than 1.9 million children out of school. And all this was before the school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is now further exacerbating an already complex emergency situation. Therefore, the capacity of the education sector to promote peace and harmonious coexistence cannot be underestimated. Indeed, one direct result of children not getting an education is that they are more vulnerable to recruitment into violent extremism, child labor and sexual exploitation, early marriages, disease, and ultimately poverty. Shaping peace in Africa through education and citizenry The African Union vision talks of “a peaceful and prosperous Africa, integrated, led by its own citizens and occupying the place it deserves in the global community and in the knowledge economy.” Quality education is crucial to achieving this vision, and entails fostering attitudes that promote mutual understanding, tolerance and respect, which in turn makes societies less susceptible to violent conflicts. Education also provides a sense of normalcy and routine for children and adults after the trauma of violent conflicts. Investing in peace through education is therefore strategic as it promotes resilience and mitigates violent conflicts as well as violent extremism – the case of Europe is a classic example. Peace and security are critical ingredients in the social and economic development of any nation. Violent conflicts hamper economic development and reinforce inequalities, grievances and desperation, trapping countries in a vicious cycle of violence. Quality education can give children and youth hope and opportunities and heal divisions and traumas of war. A school can and should be a place of peace. To this end, African countries have no alternative but to anchor peace education in their education sector policies and plans, and mainstream peace education at all levels to ensure that knowledge, skills, values and attitudes for peaceful coexistence can be learned and practiced. Ministries of education also need to adopt conflict-sensitive approaches in their policies as well as emergency preparedness and response strategies that incorporate conflict reduction and protection of education from attack. Of even greater importance is the need for ministries of education to establish and strengthen their emergency coordination structures at both national and regional level to seal any gaps that may be in existence. ADEA’s work on fostering peace education in Africa The Inter-Country Quality Node on Peace Education (ICQN-PE) is one of ADEA's mechanisms for peer learning and knowledge exchange among African countries, to promote dialogue for education and leadership. Since its establishment in Kenya in 2009, the ICQN-PE has brought together countries facing conflict-related challenges for collaborative actions and use education systems as agencies and forces for conflict prevention, peacebuilding and nation building. For example, a study on the Protection of Education against Military Attack during Armed Conflict validated in August 2019 in which the ICQN-PE took part, indicated that as a result of implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration, official armed forces, among other actors, have made great efforts towards ensuring that they do not occupy schools for their activities, and they have reduced the use of children as soldiers. The teacher attrition rate has decreased in conflict-affected areas after disaster and risk reduction training and initiatives have been put in place. Peace clubs have also helped in decreasing indiscipline in schools and most countries now have a policy on schools as zones of peace. To help strengthen regional coordination, in February 2020, the ICQN in collaboration with ADEA and Save the Children, brought together 11 countries in post-conflict, currently in conflict or hosting refugees to build the capacity of the coordinators of the African Union CESA Cluster on Peace Education. ADEA, through its ICQN-PE and strategic partners, organize policy dialogue forums and call on all key actors (governments, parties to conflict, religious leaders, etc.) to stop attacks and/or threats against schools and their personnel in Africa and invest in quality education – which will make their country socioeconomically prosperous. Lastly, what is vital today also, in light of this catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, is to develop bold policies aligned with continental and global frameworks that can really advance African actions on education in emergencies and protracted crisis. Today more than ever before, it is key to invest in education if we want to prepare the future of tomorrow.  by Dorah Kitala, ICQN-PE                                                           URL:https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/peace-education-key-driver-change-africa ⓒ Equal Times / Fernando Reimers Fernando Reimers: “Giving priority attention to the most vulnerable students is essential if we are to provide opportunities for all” 2020-09-23 Venezuelan academic Fernando Reimers, director of the International Education Policy Program at Harvard University, is conscious that this is a crucial time for the teaching community to ensure that children and young people in vulnerable situations do not drop out of the system. With the Covid-19 pandemic worsening and the opportunity gap widening, Professor Reimers is working on a number of international projects seeking to ensure education for all through leadership, innovation and teacher training. An early conclusion: there is still hope. He tells us why, in this interview for Equal Times. In a recent webinar you said that, when the pandemic is over, members of the health and education community will ask their colleagues, “Where were you during the pandemic?” What did you do during that time? Allow me to put the same question to you now: what have you been doing during the pandemic? Even before the pandemic was declared, it did not require much foresight to see the potentially devastating effects it could have on education systems, given the serious limitations it would place on the ability of schools to continue to operate in the way they are accustomed to. Equally clear was the fact that its economic impact would affect the ability of families to keep up their children’s schooling and the ability of states to fund the education system. In the early 1980s, education systems in the developing world were severely impacted by a serious economic crisis, and that impact was the subject of my doctoral thesis. I expect the pandemic to have a more profound impact because its economic impact will be greater. This led me to ask myself what I could do to mitigate that educational impact on my own students and on the various educational institutions. As for my own students, we turned our postgraduate studies in education at Harvard into fully online programmes. The result has been to open up the opportunity for students from outside the US to take part in our graduate programmes, and for us to have the most diverse and experienced cohort of students I’ve seen since I began teaching at Harvard. It is undoubtedly the largest educational experiment Harvard has conducted in many decades. As regards the Global Education Innovation Initiative, I redirected my efforts towards producing information that might help to support educational decision-making. Then we launched our Schooling Disrupted, Schooling Rethought: How the Covid-19 pandemic is changing education report, in partnership with the OECD. This is a crucial time to prevent the education gap from widening and to stop too many children and young people being left behind. Based on your research on different educational experiences around the world, do you think governments are prepared for this historic moment? Or to be more specific, is there any country that has shown itself to be particularly adept in its management of education during the crisis? The widening of educational opportunity gaps between children from different social backgrounds is undoubtedly one of the greatest risks of the pandemic. The gap is widening, all over the world, and its growth is partly the result of poor leadership. Some families with greater purchasing power are making their own arrangements in response to the shortcomings of both public and private schools, such as organising themselves into small groups and hiring a person (in many cases a trainee teacher, recent graduate or retired teacher) to tutor their children. These so-called learning pods are a good idea, but that good idea is not within every student’s reach. Such arrangements are therefore likely to increase the social inequalities in the educational opportunities that students have access to during the pandemic. Ways must be found to provide more support to socially disadvantaged students so that their only option is not between attending school in conditions that put their health and that of their teachers at risk (when health conditions make face-to-face education high risk) or spend hours in front of a computer screen, listening to classes via Zoom, with teachers who have not been properly trained to provide quality education remotely. In some cases, the less privileged children do not have an adult at home in a position to support them with these tasks. This is a unique opportunity for the other institutions in society to show solidarity with those who need it most, an opportunity for universities around the world to involve their students in assisting teachers with the work they are doing to support the education of the most vulnerable children in primary and secondary schools. For education to reach everyone, it is essential that in-class schooling be increased but, as we are seeing in a number of countries, like Spain, where the rate of Covid-19 infection is rising to high levels again, many families are afraid to send their children to school. Is it possible to ensure both universal access to education and the safety of families? Ensuring educational opportunities for all under conditions that are adapted to the health situation in each region or local area is crucial. Giving priority attention to the most vulnerable students is essential to achieving opportunity for all. If the local health authorities establish that school attendance is contributing to the spread of the epidemic, and if infection rates are increasing to public risk levels, alternative ways need to be found to continue providing educational opportunities. Education can be provided in many ways, and it is certainly possible to do so even more effectively with adequate teacher training and the provision of students with the connectivity and equipment required. The efforts to develop alternative emergency arrangements during the months of April, May and June clearly show that they cannot completely replace face-to-face instruction in terms of its full potential to develop cognitive and social-emotional skills. It also has to be acknowledged that this potential is diminished by the adoption of social distancing measures in schools. What educational principles should never be lost sight of in the midst of urgent containment measures, remote education and a cautious return to school? The number one principle is to ensure the students’ psychological and physical wellbeing. The pandemic is affecting the health and the incomes of many families, creating a great deal of understandable anxieties. Prolonged anxiety has a detrimental effect on people’s mental health. Education should contribute to the wellbeing of students and teachers. The second principle is the need to maintain the continuity of students’ learning, to create enabling conditions for them to learn and to do so with pleasure. There should also be much greater emphasis on students developing knowledge and skills rather than on ‘covering content’. A third principle is the need to lead educational systems that foster dialogue. In those places where I have seen the most interesting innovations, I have also found humble educational leadership that encourages collaboration. The pandemic creates the risk of more authoritarian forms of leadership as an understandable response to uncertainty. In your book Empowering Students to Improve the World – and in your global curriculum – you argue in favour of complex lessons, discussing the cross-cutting issues of conflict – poverty, identity, nation, religion – to avoid infantilising students. But these issues are usually very close to one’s value system and there is often a fear of ideological debate in the classroom. How can this fear be overcome? The purpose of the three global citizenship curricula I have developed is to effectively engage students in active and collaborative learning experiences that enable them to develop the skills needed to tackle important issues that concern them, such as poverty, inequality, climate change, etc. The curricula are in use in many schools in various countries around the world, and the books are translated into many languages. I find there are, in fact, many educators who understand that empowering students to take charge of their own lives and equipping them with the skills to collaborate with others to improve the world is indeed the most important educational goal of our time. I think this pandemic has prompted many educators to reflect on these issues. What I am presenting in these curricula are opportunities for students to think, to debate, to develop their own ideas. The aim is not to indoctrinate students in one way of thinking or another. Disinformation, fake news, denialism, extremist discourse: what role does education – or the lack of it – play in the proliferation of all these destabilising forces? Is educating for democracy more important than ever? I honestly don’t know. When Germany’s Weimar Republic was replaced by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in 1933, the country had one of the most highly educated populations in Europe. When the Latin American dictatorships reached Chile and Argentina in the 1970s, these countries had the highest levels of education in the region. So the connection between education and democracy or authoritarianism is complex, and it certainly takes more than years of schooling to develop the skills and the will to effectively engage in democratic citizenship. There is indeed an increase in intolerant movements around the world, often linked to a resurgence in nationalist populism, which are a challenge for pluralist democracies that respect the human rights of all people. Part of the ideology of this new populism is a mistrust of scientific expertise and institutions. Its attacks on educational institutions have been most clear-cut against universities, which it considers to be ‘elite’ institutions. It is not unusual for authoritarian governments to distrust institutions that cultivate critical thinking, and to attack universities, scientists and intellectuals. Hitler did it, Franco did it, Pinochet did it and many other autocrats have done it, ever since the first modern research university was established, in Berlin, in 1811. School is synonymous with hope, and I would like to end with this question. Is there any project, undertaken in a country of the Global South, that has raised your interest during the pandemic? Of the innovations I’ve been studying, I have found those that institutions or governments have come up with to keep teaching in areas where resources are hugely lacking very inspiring. The Alianza Educativa (Education Alliance) in Colombia, bringing together private universities and schools providing support for public schools attended by students from low-income families, has come up with ingenious ways of continuing to teach, remotely, during the pandemic, for example. In India, Reality Gives, a non-profit organisation that works with very vulnerable children living in the slums of Mumbai, has found a way to continue giving its English classes using mobile phones. In Brazil, the State Secretariat of Education in Maranhão has established a partnership with a non-governmental organisation to make use of technology to help mothers to provide quality early education. And as for government bodies that have demonstrated a capacity for innovation in educating vulnerable populations, the Municipal Secretariat of Education in Bogotá, Colombia, or the Secretariat of Education in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, come to mind. These and other examples clearly show that it is possible, that in the extremely difficult conditions created by the pandemic, it is possible to continue educating children living in highly vulnerable conditions. It is a matter of being aware of what we can do with all the resources at our disposal, of asking ourselves the question that we addressed at the beginning, that is, in the midst of this serious crisis that all of humanity is experiencing: “What am I doing to alleviate the suffering caused by the pandemic?” I am sure that if we ask ourselves this question and we do all we can to answer it, within the bounds of our own capabilities, it may be that, at the end of the long night that this pandemic represents, we will wake up to a better, more inclusive, more sustainable and more just world. This article has been translated from Spanish. By Claudio Moreno URL:https://www.equaltimes.org/fernando-reimers-giving-priority?lang=en#.X2oh5897kcR © UNESCO UNESCO-UNODC regional dialogue series: Giving youth a voice to build a fair post-COVID world 2020-09-19 A joint UNESCO-UNODC partnership working to promote the rule of law through education is launching a series of virtual regional dialogues to bring young people together with policymakers to hear what they want from education and justice systems in the post COVID-19 future. The pandemic has not only severely disrupted schooling, but has also fractured important connections between young people and education institutions. The impact has been hardest on vulnerable and marginalized young people, especially girls, for whom school offers not only a space for learning but also protection and nutrition. The dialogues will focus on Central America, South Asia and Europe and the Middle East and North Africa and will seize the opportunity for change offered by the pandemic to build discussion among young people, policy-makers, educators and representatives from education and justice sectors to engage them in building back better. Each one will be grounded in UNESCO's response to the pandemic which includes the Learning Never Stops and Futures of Education initiatives while reflecting regional contexts and needs. The opening event, Regional Dialogue on Citizenship Education Policies on 17 September, will focus on member countries grouped under the educative coordination body CECC-SICA (Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama). The first part will take stock of how Global Citizenship Education and Education for Justice are implemented in each of the countries from the perspective of Ministries of Education and youth.   The second part in the latter half of October will promote discussions among Member States on recommendations for an emergency curriculum for the region and will include input from youth, teachers and civil society leaders. The next regional dialogue, to be held during the last week of October, will focus on South Asia where the pandemic has worsened the existing education crisis. Before it, the region already had 95 million out of school children. With the crisis still unfolding, many of the 430 million children affected by school closures in the region are in danger of dropping out of the education system. UNICEF has reported that in South Asia, COVID-19 might also push nearly 120 million children into poverty. A further dialogue is planned from 23-25 November in association with the Council of Europe and will draw on research and a survey on teachers' assessments of how student voice and participation were affected by COVID-19. Recommendations from the dialogues will feed into the 14th United Nations Crime Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to be held in March 2021, among other events. The UNESCO-UNODC Partnership on Global Citizenship on Education for the Rule of Law, aims to empower children and youth to understand and exercise their rights, think critically, make sound ethical judgments, and build just societies. It forms part of UNESCO's GCED and UNODC's E4J work which, among others, has produced a policy guide and education materials for primary and secondary schools. Access the Regional Dialogue (on 17 September at 9-11:30 am Costa Rica, 12-2.30 pm Santiago, 5pm-7:30 pm Paris) Zoom - Code: 745647 YouTube broadcast URL:https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-unodc-regional-dialogue-series-giving-youth-voice-build-fair-post-covid-world © UNESCO Call for applications: International Mother Language Award 2021 2020-09-15 The International Mother Language Institute, a UNESCO Category 2 Institute in Dhaka (Bangladesh) has launched a new international mother language award. The award will be granted in recognition of an outstanding contribution related to the protection and promotion, practice and research of mother languages in Bangladesh and throughout the world. The award will be conferred on the International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2021. Download the the call for applications and nominations and the guidelines of the 2021 edition of the International Mother Language Award. The deadline has been extended to 30 September 2020. URL:https://en.unesco.org/news/call-applications-international-mother-language-award-2021 ⓒ UNESCO Intercultural dialogue during the pandemic: impact and response 2020-09-12 Whilst underscoring humanity’s interconnectedness and interdependency, COVID-19 has also led to a rise in discrimination, inequality, and vulnerability, putting pressure on the capacities of societies for intercultural understanding at a time where solidarity and cooperation are needed more than ever. Exploring these themes, a new UNESCO brief has been released examining both the impact of COVID-19 on intercultural relations and the creative responses undertaken to strengthen cross-cultural cooperation within this unprecedented context. Highlighting several core areas of impact which threaten intercultural understanding during the pandemic – from the rise of xenophobia and ethnocultural racism to increases in gender-based violence – the brief echoes various of the UN Secretary-General’s messages which underscore the need to address structural injustices in order to foster more effective and cohesive responses to, and recovery from, the crisis. It identifies the availability of online platforms as a key means through which governments, practitioners, and communities have managed to create effective solutions through which to continue intercultural learning and exchange during the crisis. Categorizing the responses into four key areas – from the use of innovative artistic mediums to promote intercultural learning, to anti-racist activism through social media – the brief highlights the dynamic and creative good practices that have emerged through necessity during the crisis.  Looking ahead, the brief posits that the “emerging post-COVID-19 world will be shaped by new dynamics and complex realities immersed in virtual inter-connectivity and driven by cross-sectoral engagements. To this end, the intercultural dialogue agenda will have a significant role to play in developing a new socio-cultural compact that will contribute to shaping the way we live, work, connect and engage across national, ethnic, and civilizational lines.” To this end, recommendations to policy-makers and practitioners are suggested to both maintain intercultural exchange during the crisis, and respond to the lessons of the pandemic, including strengthening human rights protections (as a fundamental foundation of intercultural exchange), bolstering structures to support civic exchange, and deliberation, and addressing social inequalities that can fuel discrimination and marginalisation.     Read the full brief More on Intercultural dialogue Contact: interculturaldialogue@unesco.org URL:https://en.unesco.org/news/intercultural-dialogue-during-pandemic-impact-and-response ⓒ UNESCO COVID-19: UNESCO and partners in education launch global campaign to keep girls in the picture 2020-09-09 The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the largest school closures and education disruption in history, with more than 1.5 billion students affected at the height of the crisis. Over 767 million of these students were girls. Now, another major challenge is looming. Over 11 million girls – from pre-primary to tertiary education - may not return to school in 2020. This alarming number not only threatens decades of progress made towards gender equality, but also puts girls around the world at risk of adolescent pregnancy, early and forced marriage, and violence. For many girls, school is more than just a key to a better future. It’s a lifeline. This is why UNESCO and members of the Global Education Coalition’s Gender Flagship are launching a new #LearningNeverStops campaign focusing on ‘keeping girls in the picture.’ The campaign calls for efforts to safeguard progress made on girls’ education, ensure girls’ learning continuity during school closures, and promote girls’ safe return to school once these reopen. It also sheds light on the 130 million girls who were already out of school before the pandemic, and calls on the international community to urgently work together to guarantee their right to education. It’s time to turn the crisis into an opportunity to build back equal. The new #LearningNeverStops multilingual campaign features a signature launch video, engaging social media assets, practical toolkits for radio and youth-led organizations as well as a Girls back to school guide for partners to engage audiences and stakeholders everywhere. Youth activists and community radios are being mobilized at the local level to access hard to reach communities to reach. Local and regional influencers, experts, education professionals and champions for girls’ and women’s rights have also committed to amplifying campaign messages and spread knowledge through their respective networks. Powerful human-interest stories from girls around the world will also be featured throughout this extended campaign. A wealth of knowledge and resources on girls’ and women’s education are also available on the campaign landing page. Join the campaign now and use your voice to ensure that #LearningNeverStops for girls everywhere. About UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition  The Global Education Coalition was launched by UNESCO at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a platform for collaboration and exchange to protect the right to education during this unprecedented disruption and beyond. It currently brings together more than 140 members from the UN family, civil society, academia and the private sector, among others. The Coalition has established three Flagships, including one on gender. The Gender Flagship is open to all organizations within the Global Education Coalition interested in gender equality in and through education. The Gender Flagship works to address the gender dimensions of COVID-19’s impact on education and safeguard progress made on gender equality in education in recent decades.  Campaign landing page Social media pack Keeping girls in the picture: Youth advocacy toolkit Keeping girls in the picture: Community radio toolkit Building back equal: Girls back to school guide URL:https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-unesco-and-partners-education-launch-global-campaign-keep-girls-picture © Centro Universitario de Participación Social While the COVID crisis increases inequalities, UNESCO recalls that reading is the basis of development 2020-09-08 While 773 million adults and young people around the world still lack basic literacy skills, UNESCO will host an online International Conference on literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond On International Literacy Day, 8 September. The conference will bring together experts and educators to reimagine literacy teaching and learning for youth and adults, in line with UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative. UNESCO’s International Literacy Prizes 2020 will also award five outstanding literacy programmes from Ghana, Mexico, Nepal, United Kingdom and Yemen. The near-global lockdown caused by COVID-19 has disrupted education, affecting more than 91% of students and 99% of teachers.  Reading is the key to development. Adult literacy programs should not be the adjustment variable of education.-- Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General This year’s UNESCO’s International Literacy Prizes recognizes excellence in literacy programmes in the spirit of the theme of the Organization’s Literacy Day celebration. The two UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize awards for mother-tongue literacy education and training, sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Korea, will be given to: Ageing Nepal for its national programme: ‘Basic Literacy Class for Older Persons,’ Nepal. The country’s first programme to target older people who have moved from rural settings to urban areas. It empowers the elderly by supporting their ability to live independently through intergenerational adult literacy education in the national language, Nepali. Ageing Nepal is a national leading non-government organization registered with the government of Nepal and affiliated to the Social Welfare Council.  United World Schools for its programme ‘Providing Non-Burmese Speaking Out-of-School Children with Access to Education’, United Kingdom. The programme provides access to primary education for out-of-school children from linguistic minority communities in Myanmar’s Shan State. By employing and training community members as teachers, the programme allows children to study in their mother tongue, while bringing employment and capacity-building opportunities to teachers. United world schools (UWS) is an international charity based in the United Kingdom that focuses on sustainable quality education. The three awards of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, supported by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, for work that benefits rural populations and out-of-school youth, particularly girls and women, will be given to: Centro Universitario de Participación Social of the Benmérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla for its literacy programme: 'Learning by Teaching, Mexico'. Based on the creation of support networks, the programme supports the idea of global citizenship whereby volunteer college students, previously trained by mentors, live together in a rural community to teach young people and adults how to read and write, while also educationally supporting children. It is a unique model of participatory training and critical reflection on the different social problems in the context of life skills training. This approach aims to ensure sustainability and building relationships between different sectors of the society to create positive interdependency.  The General literacy office in Sanaa, Yemen, for its programme ‘Educating and integrating refugees in literacy classes in Yemeni society,’. This exemplary local programme operating despite war and displacement, caters to illiterate refugees regardless of their nationality. It helps them acquire literacy skills so that they can benefit from a range of learning opportunities throughout life, including the acquisition of life skills needed to face the social and economic challenges. The programme employs flexible pedagogies adapted to different age groups and abilities to help them qualify for enrollment in formal education. The General Literacy Office in Sanaa is part of the Literacy and Adult Education Organization of the Yemeni ministry of Education, which operates in 21 provinces and supervises over 215 literacy centres in 11 districts in Yemen.    Just Commit Foundation (JCF) for its programme ‘Inspirational Business Stories,’ Ghana. This programme has an innovative approach to literacy teaching and learning through business story books that inspire and guide children and youth to create sustainable businesses with limited resources. It promotes the use of waste such as paper, plastic, fabric and e-waste to create new, inexpensive and reusable products. The beneficiaries learn eco-entrepreneurship in both their local language and English, including how to develop business models, set up and run successful, sustainable and environmentally-friendly businesses. The programme also develops young peoples' personal skills such as confidence, team-work, leadership and problem-solving, and combines literacy and sustainability for the broader community. JCF was established in 2017 as a non-profit organization to leverage innovation at the service of youth and children. URL:https://en.unesco.org/news/while-covid-crisis-increases-inequalities-unesco-recalls-reading-basis-development