High-Stakes Test Preparation in a Time of COVID-19
School suspensions across Africa during COVID-19 disrupted learning for all pupils, but particularly those preparing for school-leaving examinations. School-leaving exams have enormous implications on pupils’ future educational and employment outcomes, including secondary school completion and future income. During national lockdowns, pupils have lacked in-class preparation and access to test-prep materials normally distributed via schools. No matter […]
Learning To Reach Out: Embracing New Ways of Connecting
We have been all been in lockdown, sometimes in containment, some even quarantined. But spirits have remained high. Our energy and enthusiasm come from daily interactions with children. Exploring new ways of connecting, of contacting communities, and of communicating with children has been challenging but also exhilarating. Every day, we are learning from these experiences. […]
Three Success Factors for Safe, Smooth, and Settled Learning Transitions
Learning transitions can be disruptive and unsettling to any young person. Children aged between 12-25 years old are particularly vulnerable, given how this period can impact on increased risks of anxiety, depressive disorders, and mental illnesses later in life. What are the factors that can mitigate these risks and turn learning transitions into a time of […]
What Does COVID-19 Mean for SDG 4’s Future?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of goals set by the United Nations to achieve better lives and future for all. There are 17 goals that are interconnected and address multiple challenges facing humanity ranging from poverty, inequality, quality education to gender and environmental issues. It is extremely important that these goals are […]
Measuring Success of Systemic Impact: Be Fine with Letting Go
A reflective essay written as part of the WISE Emerging Leaders program. My last memory as a teacher is of being in front of a school, surrounded by students, who were either disappointed or relieved, some crying. It was their last year in secondary school, brought to an end by the baccalauréat, the french national exam allowing […]
Introduction: Reimagining Education
There is a fantastic quote from the German philosopher Hannah Arendt “Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it, and by the same token save it from that ruin which except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and the young, would […]
Leading in Crisis: The Tensions that Forge
Special Focus : Reimagining Education for a Better Future Working successfully through crisis depends on real leadership. As unpredictability flows across every organizational plane, school leaders are tested emotionally, cognitively, and practically. This has been no more apparent than through the fragility induced by the ongoing coronavirus emergency. The crisis has generated conditions throughout our communities […]
The Fundamental Shift Needed to Transform Education
The cries are resounding: “Education must emerge from this global crisis transformed.” For most of us making those calls, what we mean by transformed is, ultimately: more human (and within that notion, we include more equitable). We are echoing the cries of John Dewey and countless other educators for over a century that our global system of forced, […]
Learning for a New World
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, so do the risks we face. The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped at national borders, and affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender. But that has not been true for its consequences, which have affected the most vulnerable hardest. Education has been no exception. Those from privileged […]
Love the Questions
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…, Live the questions now. –Rainer Maria Rilke Revisiting Rilke’s advice to love and live questions prompted my own reflection on our current task of developing answers to the many questions requiring an urgent response at the expense of identifying […]