Sarah Pouezevara

At the 68th annual meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), a global network of researchers and practitioners gathered to exchange diverse perspectives on how to improve education worldwide. During panels, workshops, and networking events, attendees shared insights, discussed ideas, and formed new partnerships.  

Over 30 RTI experts contributed research on topics such as learning remediation and recovery, system strengthening for improved literacy and numeracy, social emotional learning, climate resilience in education, and more.  

On November 15, 97 public schools opened their doors once again to classroom instruction after 20 months of closure and a shift to remote learning for more than one full academic year. The Philippines is one of the only countries in the world to have remained closed, with no exceptions, for so long. According to the President, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the public health risks were simply too great for household and community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in this country where crowded metropolitan areas and multigenerational families living in the same home is the norm. USAID (US Agency for International Development), through the All Children Reading, ABC+, and Reach Health projects implemented by RTI International in the Philippines, is providing support for this pilot in various ways.

Like many countries around the world faced with rising cases of Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19),  classroom instruction in the Philippines is shifting to remote learning. For 22,668,397 Filipino children ^[1] there will in all likelihood be no face-to-face classroom instruction for the duration of the 2020-2021 school year ^[2].  And like all countries committing to fully remote learning, a key question is whether the education system is ready for remote learning&

Like many other organizations working in global education, RTI International is working rapidly to understand the implications of the COVID-19 crisis on our overall institution and the way we function, on how we can support our staff and projects, and how we can support education goals in the countries where RTI staff live and work. Do we have all the solutions? Certainly not. But, we are learning and want to share our experience, tools, and resources in the hope they help others.

My children are in public school in France. Last week at WISE @ Paris I learned that "French students spend 2/3 of their time taking notes. 70% of students have not worked in a group until they are 15 years old." (Yann Algan, Sciences Po). This confirmed my own impressions, and added to my parental angst about how to prepare my children for an uncertain future. However, it wasn't all bad news.

The world of online learning—and the prevailing wisdom within it—changes rapidly. This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that within two years, global commentary moved from “the year of the massive online open course” (2012) to “the death of the MOOC” (2014).

Image: Matthew Burpee (2006). Licensed under Creative Commons 2.0, via Flickr. Some rights reserved. 

This commentary piece is a cross-posting from the original version published in Education Technology Debate.