The Global Health Pandemic has shined a harsh light on the vulnerabilities and challenges humanity faces. It has provided a clear picture of existing inequalities—and a clearer picture of what steps forward we need to take, chief among them addressing the education of more than 1.5 billion students whose learning has been hampered due to school closures.
It is evident that we cannot return to the world as it was before. One of the strongest messages in the attached report is that our common humanity necessitates global solidarity. We cannot accept the levels of inequality that have been permitted to emerge on our shared planet. It is particularly important that the world supports developing countries. with investment in 21st-century education infrastructures; this will require the mobilization of resources and support from developed countries, in particular with debt cancellation, restructuring, and new financing.
Decisions made today in the context of COVID-19 will have long-term consequences for the future of education. Policy-makers, educators, and communities must make high-stakes choices today—these decisions should be guided by shared principles and visions of desirable collective futures.
COVID-19 has revealed vulnerabilities; it has also surfaced extraordinary human resourcefulness and potential. This is a time for pragmatism and quick action, but it is also a moment when more than ever we cannot abandon scientific evidence. Nor can we operate without principles. Choices must be based on a humanistic vision of education and development and human rights frameworks.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides many of the necessary signposts and guidelines.
Nine ideas for concrete actions today that will advance education tomorrow.
1. Commit to strengthening education as a common good. Education is a bulwark against inequalities. In education as in health, we are safe when everybody is safe; we flourish when everybody flourishes.
2. Expand the definition of the right to education so that it addresses the importance of connectivity and access to knowledge and information. The Commission calls for a global public discussion—that includes, among others, learners of all ages—on ways the right to education needs to be expanded.
3. Value the teaching profession and teacher collaboration. There has been remarkable innovation in the responses of educators to the COVID-19 crisis, with those systems most engaged with families and communities showing the most resilience.
We must encourage conditions that give frontline educators autonomy and flexibility to act collaboratively.
We cannot return to the world as it was before ❞
4. Promote student, youth, and children’s participation and rights. Intergenerational justice and democratic principles should compel us to prioritize the participation of students and young people broadly in the co-construction of desirable change.
5. Protect the social spaces provided by schools as we transform education. The school as a physical space is indispensable. Traditional classroom organizations must give
way to a variety of ways of ‘doing school’ but the school as a separate space-time of collective living, specific and different from other spaces of learning must be preserved.
6. Make free and open-source technologies available to teachers and students. Open educational resources and open-access digital tools must be supported. Education cannot thrive with ready-made content built outside of the pedagogical space and outside of human relationships between teachers and students. Nor can education be dependent on digital platforms controlled by private companies.
7. Ensure scientific literacy within the curriculum. This is the right time for deep reflection on curriculum, particularly as we struggle against the denial of scientific knowledge and actively fight misinformation.
8. Protect domestic and international financing of public education. The pandemic has the power to undermine several decades of advances. National governments, international organizations, and all education and development partners must recognize the need to strengthen public health and social services but simultaneously mobilize around the protection of public education and its financing.
9. Advance global solidarity to end current levels of inequality. COVID-19 has shown us the extent to which our societies exploit power imbalances and our global system exploits inequalities. The Commission calls for renewed commitments to international cooperation and multilateralism, together with a revitalized global solidarity that has empathy and an appreciation of our common humanity at its core.
COVID-19 presents us with a real challenge and a real responsibility. These ideas invite debate, engagement, and action by governments, international organizations, civil society, educational professionals, as well as learners and stakeholders at all levels. We urgently need investment and structural change so that short-term setbacks do not grow into larger, long-lasting problems.
There is a serious risk that COVID-19 will wipe out several decades of progress—most notably the progress that has been made in addressing poverty and gender equality. While the pandemic demonstrates that we belong to one interconnected humanity, social and economic arrangements mean that the impacts of the virus are disparate and unjust. Gender discrimination means that girls’ educational attainments are likely to suffer greatly, with a risk of many not returning to school post-COVID-19. This is not something we should accept; we must do everything in our power to prevent it.
COVID-19 has the potential to radically reshape our world, but we must not passively sit back and observe what plays out. Now is the time for public deliberation and democratic accountability. Now is the time for intelligent collective action.
The situation we face is so dramatic and difficult that we cannot afford to be pessimistic. We are facing the biggest changes in education since public schooling emerged in the 19th century. The urgency of improving the world before presented us all with a real challenge and responsibility. We must build narratives for what the new reality could look like. We have to nourish the sources that give us hope for rethinking how the world works. Education needs to be at the heart of a post-COVID-19 world. For that future we need boldness of thought and courageous action now.
About Dr Pratik Mungekar
1) He is the first Indian to be appointed as the planetary Minister of Sustainable Development of Newly emerging The Kingdom of Atlantis (a Decentralized Sovereign Kingdom)
2) He is the first youngest Indian whose book Introduction to Sustainable Development Goals (Non-Academic) is now part of the Atlantean Education program.
3) He is the first youngest Indian to receive 300+ Honorary Doctorates from all over the world.
4)He is the first youngest Indian professor who taught more than 8000+ Students & Career guided 4000+ Students to date & the count is still on.
5) He is the first Indian who has 850+ International, National & State Awards 6 National Patents, 15 World Records at the age of 28 for his contribution in the field of Teaching & Research.
6) He is the first youngest Indian to receive 125+ Honorary High Degrees across the Globe.
7) He is the first Indian to be appointed by 45+ International organizations on various High-positions at the same time.
8) He is the first youngest Indian to be appointed as Ambassador by 46 organizations of many countries in almost all disciplines.
9) He is the first Indian youngest professor to start teaching at the age of sixteen, the age of twenty Seven He has completed twelve years of Teaching.
10) He is the first Youngest Indian to receive Royal &Prestigious Titles such as 1)Lecturus Magnificus (L.M.), 2) H.R.H. 5* Duke.
11) First Youngest Indian to receive Mendeleev’s Fellowship ( United Kingdom’s Highest Academic Honour).
12)First Indian to receive the distinguished title “Professor Wisdom” from Institución Cultural Colombiana Casa Poética Magia y Plumas ,Colombia South America.
13) Visting faculty in many National & Foreign Universities.
14) Director of Research & Innovation
OXFAA University, Lighthouse Leadership University.
15) Vice Chancellor
Unified Theological Seminary USA
University of Kingdom of Atlantis
Today, the name of Prof. Dr. Pratik Rajan Mungekar is no longer common but is emerging as a distinguished Scientist, Professor, World Educationist, Published Writer, Counsellor, Social Worker, and an International Speaker
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