The International Education Day celebrates the role that education plays in the path to peace and development, and it aims to increase international cooperation in achieving SDG 4, “Ensuring quality, inclusive and equitable education and promoting opportunities of lifelong learning for all by 2030″. However, as a ladder to get out of poverty and construct a promising future, it still lacks answers to pressing challenges, namely due to the pandemic’s impact. There’s an entire generation of students who are at risk of losing lifelong gains corresponding to 14% of today’s global GDP.

The report The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery shows that, in low- and middle-income countries, the proportion of children living in learning poverty – already 53% before the pandemic – can reach 70%, with many schools still closed for millions of children and some may even never more back to school. The crisis has exacerbated inequalities, particularly among children from low-income families, children with disabilities and girls, due to the lack of accessible technologies and the unavailability of electricity, connectivity and devices. Those most impacted were also preschool-age children at crucial stages of learning and the most marginalized or vulnerable, especially in countries such as Ghana, Mexico and Pakistan. In addition, the initial evidence points to more significant losses among girls, seen unprotected by what schools and education offered them in terms of their well-being and life chances.

The pandemic has disrupted the education of 1.6 billion students and exacerbated the gender divide, reflecting further learning losses among girls and increasing child labour, gender-based violence, early marriage and pregnancy.

 

Alternative futures and disruptive transformations – UN proposes a new social contract for education.

As a specialized UN agency for education, UNESCO facilitates the annual observance of this day. The UNESCO Futures of education entitled reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, focuses the response on 3 priorities: bringing all children back to school, recovering from learning losses, and preparing and supporting teachers.

As we move towards 2050, education must empower generations to reinvent their futures, guaranteeing the right to quality education throughout life (right to information, culture and science, due to access and contribution to common knowledge, through the collective knowledge resources accumulated over generations and in continuous transformation) and the strengthening of education as a common public good – ensuring public funding must also include a society-wide commitment to include EVERYONE in public discussions on education).

 

Quality education throughout life – answers and disruptive solutions in Casa do Impacto community!

IES BUSINESS SCHOOL focuses on social innovation and sustainable business solutions, offering training, research and consultancy. Founding partner and resident at Casa do Impacto celebrated its 13th anniversary on December 19, 2021! Its community already has 9000 alumni from 37 nationalities, housing from curious minds to top executives, startups to large companies, NGOs to municipalities. It is the idea that more and more people want to be part of the Impact Ecosystem and give greater purpose to their careers, in a transversal trend, without generational or geographical borders, that IES offers programs with different models, namely, tailor-made programs.

OPEN CALL for O Plug.In! A 5-day program launched that opens the door to the Impact Ecosystem to all interested parties, starting with a training component in Impact Economy, promoting the development of skills to navigate the Ecosystem and providing practical experiences in Impact and Social Innovation oriented organizations. It ends with a Career Day, which marks the beginning of every plugger’s journey in this Impact World.

Learn more about other programs like Impact Management Beyond action managing what matters and Online Impact BootcampBeyond Learning.

IES programs are just the beginning as they strengthen a network of contacts that creates a purposeful learning experience with lifelong support. Its community already operates in 12 countries: starting its activity in 2008 on the Cascais Campus, it has passed through Mozambique, Europe, Maghreb and Asia since 2018 in a partnership with the Asia Business Alliance. The Alumni Network helps expand knowledge talent and find opportunities, offering innovative experiences in an online and live format and with exclusive content, such as learning experiences, events, social media, newsletter and career opportunities.

 

The UN recalls that it is necessary to innovate teaching and the relationships between students, teachers, knowledge and the world through:

• > A change in pedagogical models: classes less teacher-centred and more focused on individual achievement, emphasizing cooperation, collaboration and solidarity.
• > More interdisciplinary curricula enhancing issues such as ecology and interculturality.
• > Schools reinventing their architecture, spaces, time, schedules and groupings in detriment of the imposition of universal models.
• > Stop thinking that education only takes place in schools and at certain ages, and welcoming and expand educational opportunities everywhere for everyone.
• > Call for research and innovation through collaborative research programs worldwide, focusing on the right to lifelong education.
• > Include different types of evidence and forms of knowledge, in horizontal learning and knowledge exchange across borders, with contributions from teachers to students, academics and research centres to governments and civil society organizations.
• > Strengthen the educational needs of asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons and migrants through international cooperation.
• > Universities and other institutions of higher learning must support research and the advancement of science, sharing knowledge with other educational institutions and programs in their communities and around the world.
• > Create more creative and innovative universities that strengthen education as a common good, where everyone can participate – children, youth, parents, teachers, researchers, activists, employers, cultural and religious leaders.

 

Learn more about residents at Casa do Impacto, who focus their mission on fulfilling SDG 4:

• > SPOT GAMES Intervention in schools through games: meaningful, fun learning experiences in an inclusive and engaging environment.
• > CODE ACADEMY Intensive Bootcamp that turn unemployed people into successful programmers.
• > SPEAK Program for sharing languages and cultures between migrants and locals. Promotes inclusion multilingualism and democratizes learning.
• > THE MINIMAL MAGAZINE Editorial Project and Social Innovation Academy develops solutions for a healthier, more inclusive and sustainable life. Offers: training, consultancy and impact talks.

 

Keep abreast of international events and opportunities related to this day and SDG 4:

• > International day of Education, New York UNESCO Debates on strengthening education as a public enterprise and a common good, how-to guide digital transformation, support teachers, protect the planet and unlock the potential of each person to contribute to collective well-being. Participate via Zoom or watch the event online on UN Web TV.
• > The Learning Planet Festival will feature more than 400 local events and online activities, co-organized with 250 partner organizations from around the world. An open platform of workshops, debates, games, exhibitions, forums and other events dedicated to promoting new ways of learning and teaching.
• > Do not miss this opportunity! HUAWEI is awarding 50 scholarships to university students, worth €5,000 each. If you are a university student of Sciences, Engineering, Management and Information Systems, apply here until January 30!

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