重塑学校的机会

联合国教科文组织的数据显示，在2020年卫生危机的冲击下，大批中小学和大学暂时关闭，受此影响的学生超过15亿人，占全球学生总数的90%。教育机构几乎是在一夜之间不得不改用远程学习平台，同时着手制定替代教学方法。

波尼玛·卢特拉

[哥本哈根商学院教师、人才教育咨询公司（一家设在丹麦哥本哈根的培训和咨询公司）创始人兼首席顾问]

COVID-19疫情暴发之后，全球超过三分之一的人口处于某种形式的封闭状态，这场卫生危机给教育造成了前所未有的破坏。世界各地暂时关闭了从幼儿园到大学的各类学校，教育工作者必须寻找替代教学方法。这种情况很可能会带来持久的影响。

美国公益慈善机构“学校未来”致力于支持创新型学校的发展，其执行董事艾米·瓦伦丁（Amy Valentine）说：“至少在疫苗可以广泛使用之前，我们都将持续感受到COVID-19疫情给全球学生带来的影响。不同教育系统和不同地区应对这场危机的方式，将在学生（无论是否准备好）升入高年级时产生涟漪效应。”

人们最担心的是，失去了学校环境所能提供的社交互动和日常活动，会给学生的心理健康造成负面影响。就连终日沉浸于新技术的Z世代（1996年至2015年间出生的人）和阿尔法世代（2015年后出生的人）也渴望抛开手中的电子设备，开展社交互动和获得亲身体验。这或许正是教育工作者在线上平台授课的最大挑战。新加坡的一位高中教师认为：“人际交往在教育方面非常重要，对青少年来说尤为如此。大多数学生肯定宁愿去上学，体会融入集体的感觉，而且在学校里，他们的学习会更加有序。”

由于严格要求民众保持社交距离，社交互动可能需要经过一段时间之后，才能恢复到新冠疫情以前的状态。由此给当代学生造成的影响，可能会在今后数年内显现出来。新加坡一所国际学校的小学教师萨里塔·索玛亚（Sarita Somaya）说：“一旦学校重新开放，恢复常态，教育工作者将面临非常艰巨的任务——向学生传授新知识，填补学习漏洞，为有需要的学生提供更多的社会和情感支持。”

世界各地有许多儿童本来可以在学校吃到一顿免费的正餐。在学校关闭之后，他们不得不另寻出路，但往往没能成功。特雅斯维塔信托基金会设在班加罗尔，为印度南部条件较差的社区提供教育服务，其联合创始人兼托管人盖亚特里·提尔塔普勒（Gayathri Tirthapura）解释说：“很多家庭连一日三餐都难以为继，全靠私人捐助方和政府宣布的救济计划度日。”

机器人代收文凭

形势不容乐观，但世界各地的教育机构都在积极寻找创新方式来应对COVID-19疫情带来的挑战。在日本，机器人代替学生本人出席大学毕业典礼；中国学生利用帽子来保持社交距离。教育工作者还必须在内容设计方面发挥创造力，利用现有的数字平台，通过生动有趣的方式来讲授学科知识。

为了弥补社交互动的缺失，一些学校的辅导员开展主题活动来吸引学生参与，一些教育工作者甚至在课堂上办起了虚拟野餐。农村学校的教师要想与学生交流，就得另想办法，他们通常会给学生家长的移动设备发送信息或是打电话。有的学生家里甚至连铅笔都没有，更不用说计算机了。遇到这种情况，教师们就必须随机应变，摸索出新的教学方法。

在美国、英国和新西兰等国，有关各方通力协作，确保贫困儿童能够用上笔记本电脑、平板电脑和移动热点。印度的古鲁萨拉（Gurushala）是一个学习门户网站，专门为教师开办数字教育，并为学生提供相关内容。这家网站的工作人员说：“在印度，出身弱势群体的儿童要想接受教育，从来都不是一件容易的事。随着移动设备和互联网的普及率逐步提升，技术忽然之间备受关注。”

集体活动的黄昏来临了吗？

从长远来看，这场卫生危机究竟会给教育造成怎样的影响？西澳大利亚州珀斯市的中小学校已经在4月末恢复开放了，但让当地小学教师塔琳·汉森（Taryn Hansen）感到困惑的是：“小学教室变得冷冰冰的，学生们不再分享，不再共享资源，不再集体合作，就连科学实验也没办法让他们兴奋起来。我希望是自己弄错了。不过，团队协作和轮换做法会从此消失吗？难道我们会恢复老式课堂的样子——教师站在前面，只管讲课，学生们整天坐在座位上一动不动？”

英国帝国理工学院商学院副教授桑卡尔普·查图尔维迪（Sankalp Chaturvedi）认为：“从长远来看，高等教育将继续在教室里进行。人们更倾向于把在线教育作为一种替代方案，这在实施封闭措施之前还不太明显或有效。”

哥本哈根国际学校校长桑迪·麦肯齐（Sandy Mackenzie）预测：“COVID-19疫情有可能带来一些积极的扰动，”可能促使“学校抛弃过时的东西，有效利用新技术，确保教育工作者培养下一代人掌握他们在今后几十年里需要用到的技能”。

减少教育中的不平等

使用数字技术意味着需要普及这种技术。新冠疫情突显出了世界各地在教育质量和教育机会方面的不平等，让人们看到了触目惊心的数字鸿沟，而且就连发达国家也存在这种鸿沟。在疫情暴发之前，网民只占全球人口总数的60%，各国政府、出版商、技术提供商和网络运营商必须通力合作，让教育工作者能够为世界各地尽可能多的学生提供在线异步教育和同步教育。

这方面的项目之一是“学习护照”。这是一个远程数字学习平台，最初是由联合国儿童基金会（UNICEF）与微软公司为流离失所儿童和难民儿童合作开发的。项目原定于2020年启动试点计划，科索沃、东帝汶和乌克兰儿童将成为第一批受益者；但项目迅速扩大了覆盖范围，将世界各地受停摆影响的学校都包括在内。现在，凡是开设在线教学课程的国家都可以访问项目内容，获得在线图书、视频资料，以及为学习障碍儿童的家长提供的更多支持。

要在今后十年内实现联合国可持续发展目标（SDG）中的目标四，我们希望看到有更多的公立机构和私立机构携起手来，为所有人打造出更加坚韧、更加包容和更加公平的教育系统。

反思教育工作者的作用

新的远程学习环境要求教育工作者在审视教学内容和最佳在线教学方法时必须发挥出创造力。这促使对教育工作者的作用进行反思，同时也让教学内容备受关注。

这方面的经验还表明，办学方法存在很大的灵活性，这就为相对传统的教育形式和教育结构提供了更多替代方案。教育工作者和学生家长都注意到，一部分学生或儿童在新的环境下如鱼得水。这可能促使远程学习的发展日臻完善，或是为喜欢这种教育体验的学生提供多种混搭学习选择。

这场危机导致教育中断和数字化方式的介入，同时也突显出我们必须重新思考下一代的教育问题。世界经济论坛（和其他组织）近日就未来劳动力所需技能开展的调查研究为此提供了更多动力。这些未来技能包括创业精神、创造力和创新等高阶认知技能，也包括社交智力技能和情感智力技能，例如复原力、适应力和成熟的心态。

要应对今后某些最迫切的全球挑战，教育界需要注重培养学生的这些技能。

要重新定义新冠疫情过后的未来教育，需要众多利益攸关方通力协作。人们必须认真思考，坦诚面对问题，然后采取必要措施来解决这些问题。

了解全球教育联盟——由教科文组织发起的多部门伙伴关系，其目的是在健康危机期间促进对所有学习者适用的远程教育，并确保 #停课不停学# 

延伸阅读：

改变人生的教师，联合国教科文组织《信使》，2018年10-12月刊

协助教师援助难民，联合国教科文组织《信使》，2018年10-12月刊

借助移动技术，缔造全新生活，联合国教科文组织《信使》，2018年10-12月刊

订阅联合国教科文组织《信使》，获取最新资讯和评析，数字版免费。

在社交网络上关注联合国教科文组织《信使》：微博、微信公众号“联合国教科文信使”、Twitter、Facebook、Instagram。

Poornima Luthra

With over a third of the global population under some form of lockdown due to COVID-19, the health crisis has caused an unprecedented disruption in education. From kindergarten to university, schools worldwide have been temporarily closed, forcing educators to find alternative teaching methods. This situation is likely to leave a lasting footprint.

“We will feel the effects of COVID-19 on students globally until a vaccine is widely available, at the very least,” says Amy Valentine, executive director of Future of School, an American public charity that supports the growth of innovative school models. “The way systems and individual districts have responded to this crisis will have a ripple effect on students as they advance, ready or not, to new grade levels.”

The negative impact on the mental health of students being away from the social interaction and routines that a school environment provides, is of prime concern. Even the technology- saturated generations of Z (children born in the years 1996 to 2015) and Alpha (children born after 2015) have been craving social interaction and physical experiences away from their devices. This has been perhaps the biggest challenge for educators to address through online platforms. “Human contact is important when it comes to education, especially for teens,” a high school teacher in Singapore said. “Most students would definitely rather go to school, to feel included in a community, where there is more structure to their learning.”

With stringent social-distancing requirements in place, it will likely be a while before social interaction levels return to pre-COVID-19 times.The impact of this on today’s generations of learners may be felt for years to come. “Once schools reopen and a sense of normalcy prevails, the job of educators will be tough – to bring students up to speed, plug gaps in learning and provide greater social and emotional support to students who require it,” Sarita Somaya, a primary teacher at an international school in Singapore, explained.

For many children around the world, schools provide their one main meal of the day. The closures have forced these children to seek out alternative options, often unsuccessfully. Gayathri Tirthapura, co-founder trustee of the Tejasvita Trust – an organization based in Bengaluru, which provides education to underserved communities in south India – explains that “families are struggling to have three meals a day, and are depending on private donors and relief packages announced by the government.”

Yet, in spite of the grim scenario, educational institutions around the world are finding creative and innovative ways to address the challenges posed by COVID-19 – from holding university graduations with robot avatars replacing students in Japan, to using social-distancing hats in China. Educators have also had to get creative about designing content to deliver academic lessons in an engaging way across the digital platforms available.

To address the lack of social interaction, counsellors in some schools have created themed activities to engage students – some educators have even organized virtual picnics with their classes. In rural schools, teachers have had to think of different ways to engage with students – often via text messages to parents’ mobile devices and phone calls. Where children do not have access to even a pencil at home – let alone a computer – teachers have had to think on their feet to find new ways of teaching them.

In countries including the United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand, concerted efforts have been made to ensure that disadvantaged children are provided laptops, tablet computers and mobile hotspots. In India, the team at Gurushala, a learning portal which provides digital education for teachers and content for students, explain that “access to education has never been easy for India’s children from disadvantaged groups. With mobile and internet penetration growing by the day, there is a sudden spotlight on technology”.

What does this health crisis mean for education in the long run? “Primary classrooms have become more clinical – where students can’t share, use shared resources or work in huddles, excited over a science experiment. I hope I’m mistaken, but will this be the end of group work and rotations? Will we go back to classrooms with the teacher lecturing at the front and students sitting in their seats all day?” Taryn Hansen, a primary school teacher in Perth, Western Australia, where schools reopened in late April (2020), wondered.

Sankalp Chaturvedi, an associate professor at Imperial College Business School, London, believes that “in the long term, higher education will still be done in the classrooms. People will be more comfortable with online education as an alternative, which was not as evident or effective before the lockdown.”

“There is the chance that COVID-19 will be disruptive in a positive way,” Sandy Mackenzie, director of the Copenhagen International School, predicts. This may lead “schools to discard what was obsolete, to employ technology effectively and to ensure that educators are developing the skills that new generations need for the decades to come.”

The use of digital technology implies widespread access to it. The pandemic has highlighted the inequality in both the quality and accessibility to education globally, and the digital divide that exists, even in developed nations. With only sixty per cent of the global population being online prior to the pandemic, governments, publishers, technology providers and network operators have had to work together to enable educators to provide asynchronous and synchronous education online to as many students globally as possible.

One programme that does this is the Learning Passport, a digital remote learning platform, originally developed for displaced and refugee children by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Microsoft. Due to start as a pilot programme in 2020 – with children in Kosovo, Timor-Leste and Ukraine being the first to experience it – the project has rapidly expanded its reach to include schools affected by closures worldwide. Now all countries with a curriculum capable of being taught online have access to the programme’s content through online books, videos and additional support for parents of children with learning disabilities.

To achieve Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the next decade, we will, hopefully, see more public and private institutions come together to make our educational systems more resilient, inclusive and equitable for all.

The new remote learning environment has meant that educators have had to think creatively about content and the best possible ways to teach online. This provides the catalyst for rethinking the role of the educator, while adding value to what is taught. 

This experience has also shown us that there is potential for flexibility in how education is delivered – creating alternatives to more traditional educational formats and structures. Educators and parents have observed that some of their students or children are flourishing in the new context. This could lead to the development of more sophisticated remote learning, or blended learning options for students who prefer such an educational experience.

This crisis has resulted in a digital disruption, but also underlined the need to rethink what future generations are taught. This has been driven more recently by research from the World Economic Forum (and other organizations) on skills required by the future workforce. These future skills include higher cognitive skills of entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation, and social and emotional intelligence skills – such as resilience, adaptability and having a growth mindset.

To solve some of the world’s most pressing global challenges in the future, education will need to focus on the development of these skills.

Redefining what education will look like for future generations in a post-COVID-19 world will require the combined efforts of the various stakeholders. They will have to think hard and honestly about the issues involved, and then take the necessary actions to address them.