Changing Course, Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures
Dr. Md. Enamul Hoque :
To strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, the fourth International Education Day- 2022 is being observed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that leads to a global learning disruption of unprecedented scale and severity. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development across the globe. The theme for this year is “Changing Course, Transforming Education”, focussing on the need to nurture transformations to allow access to education for all and help build sustainable futures.
The theme of the 2022 International Day of Education also stresses to realize the fundamental right of everyone to education. This will help to build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful future and its importance must be re-dressed for the large benefits of our generation. It calls for a broad movement encompassing governments, civil society, educators, students and youth to mobilize our collective intelligence.
This year, the International Day of Education 2022 aims to generate lively debate around how to strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, how to steer the digital transformation, support teachers, safeguard the planet, and unlock the potential in every person to contribute to collective well-being and our shared home.
This year, the observance of the Day is very meaningful as every nation has roles to play to contribute to the recovery of the education loss occurred in the pandemic. The long closure of schools, universities and other academic institutions, as well as the interruption of many literacy and lifelong learning programmes, has affected the lives of more than 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries around the world which impacted 94 per cent of the world’s student population, up to 99 per cent in low and lower-middle income countries like Bangladesh and other Asian countries.
The international community needs to put concerted effort to repair the loss with united intervention. This year’s International Education Day of Education- 2022 will be a platform to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realize everyone’s fundamental right to education and build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful futures.
To recover the loss of education, we need to prioritize education as a public good; support it with cooperation, partnerships and funding; and recognize that leaving no one behind starts with education. Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility, the right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable in many ways including COVID-19 pandemic, which cannot be recovered alone.
Hence, we should put focus on the teachers and curricula to recover the loss of education and learning, teachers around the world should be the main focus in the coming days providing them with the recognition and professional support to carry strong influence on the futures of learning. It is now widely believed that empowering teachers, strengthening financing and providing opportunities to learn throughout life are conditions for forging a new social contract.
Furthermore, Teaching-learning pedagogy needs to move from a focus on teacher-driven lessons centred on individual accomplishment to instead emphasize cooperation, collaboration, and solidarity. Curricula are often organised as a grid of subjects and need to shift to emphasize ecological, intercultural, and interdisciplinary learning. Teaching needs to move from being considered as an individual practice to becoming further professionalized as a collaborative endeavour.
COVID-19 affected the institutes but it could not evacuate the minds. Learners suffered but online education also met their partial needs and demands. The Pandemic COVID-19 taught us that Education for our generation is not linked with the institutions and general sources like books only. In the difficult times, education must not be paused, hence through devices like mobiles, laptops, and computers, the online study continued.
From the past experience of COVID-19 pandemic, the International Day of Education is a determination that on this day we should promise with ourselves and with this universe that education is the only weapon that cannot bleed us when we are un- defensive, and in order to counter-attack, we must educate our people. This decisiveness will ultimately make us economically, financially, and regionally strong enough to dominate without threats of a downfall.
The theme for this year’s Education Day is fitting for the Asia as the region has adapted to new forms of teaching and learning due to the high prevalence of COVID-19 cases. Therefore, this year’s education day provides a platform for the Bangladesh and other Asian countries to make visible the critical work it has undertaken and accomplished in providing quality education to its learners using innovative and transformative technology and techniques, with the support of governments, donors and development partners to allow access to education for all and help build sustainable futures for our people.
(Dr. Enamul is educational researcher and teacher educator. He is ex- professor of English. Email: enamul.m@gmail.com)
