POST COVID CONCERNS ON EDUCATION

 A STRENGTHENED PUBLIC COMMITMENT TOEDUCATION AS A COMMON GOOD 

The Commission calls for a strengthened public commitment to education as a common good that is based in inclusion and solidarity, and supports individual and collective flourishing. 

This pandemic has magnified many of the long-standing challenges facing humanity. The uneven opportunities that divide people within and across nations in fact seem to be worsening. Resilient societies that maximize human potential require a broad distribution of capabilities and a diversity of talents.

 Public health and public education are closely interconnected as they show the undeniable necessity of collaboration, solidarity and collective action for the common good. This global health pandemic will not be defeated by health measures alone. It will be solved by building civic trust, deepening human empathy, progressing in science, and appreciating our common humanity.

 Education authorities should work in a coordinated manner with public health authorities. Each needs the other; each is underscored by a recognition of interdependencies that arise in a public space. We cannot allow public health and public education to be posed in opposition to one another. Instead, our actions should be attuned to the synergies and overlaps between the two around human and societal well-being.

 A strengthened commitment to education as a common good means an awareness that we are educating not just children and young people—but that we are educating publics. In addition, community-engaged and community-led learning is a key component of education and must be central to any strategy that addresses present and future challenges. 

 Education has special significance for refugees and in societies scarred by armed conflict and civil strife. However, across the board in all settings education is our most important vehicle to ensure individual and societal flourishing. 

The global pandemic has made visible the central role of adult education and lifelong learning, as people of all ages now need to learn to create new ways of (re)organizing social, economic and political life. 

The closure of public museums, libraries, and community centres has reminded us of the critical, complementary roles that these institutions play vis-a-vis schools and the ways that they too must be considered an essential part of a broad understanding of public education.Many states cannot face this public health crisis without the help of society at large, through practices of self-isolation, distancing, hygiene, self-monitoring, and mutual caring. 

The social has been rediscovered. French philosopher Edgar Morin recently observed that even though we have seen a deterioration of solidarity in recent decades, “the pandemic and confinement have shown an awakening of solidarity, with numerous examples, especially in poor neighborhoods.” This is very clearly the case in education, with communities realizing the central role that public education plays in our interdependent lives. 

We realize that every dimension of well-being positively impacts others. In public education as in public health, the focus must be on cooperation not competition. We are safe when everybody is safe; we flourish when everybody flourishes.