As an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, more than 190 countries have implemented national-wide school closure, which includes preschool education, elementary, secondary, tertiary education and vocational education. According to UNESCO, more than one and half billion students have been affected by the school and university closure, which led to an urgent need for new education models. As leaders of world-class public institutions of education, and members of International Network of Educational Institutes (INEI), it is our compelling obligation to reflect on the challenges we are facing, to inspire innovations on practices and policies, to advocate inclusive education, to collaborate closely on teaching, learning and research, to envision for future education landscape, and to reiterate the importance of solidarity.
Today we are more than excited to share our INEI Statement on the Global Coronavirus Pandemic with the communities we are serving, to reiterate our commitment to nurturing and supporting individuals and groups in the development of their social, physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing through processes of inclusive and responsive teaching and learning. We also commit ourselves, as educators, to undertaking the necessary intellectual and practical research work that must continue for the purposes of knowledge production and human development in a post-pandemic world.
We wish to thank the leadership team at the Faculty of Education at the University of Sao Paulo, Dean Marcos Neira, Vice Dean Vinicio Santos, and Dr. Ana Duboc for proposing issuing such a powerful statement. We also wish to express our sincere gratitude to the 7 members of the INEI Statement Editing Committee, Prof. Chew-Hung Chang (National Institute of Education), Dr. Ana Duboc (Faculty of Education, University of Sao Paulo), Dr. Lorraine Graham (Melbourne School of Graduate Education), Dr. Li-Ching Ho (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Dr. Catherine Kell (School of Education, University of Cape Town), Prof. John O’Regan (UCL Institute of Education), Dr. Michele Peterson-Badali (Ontario Institute in Studies of Education), who have spent countless hours working together and achieved such a beautiful-crafted and strong-voiced statement.
For the printable version of the Statement, please click here.
