Gordon Brown & Julia Gillard help drive far-reaching global education changes

@OfficeGSBrown & @JuliaGillard help drive far-reaching global education changes @RewirEd2021

COVID-19 the catalyst after 1.6 billion young people’s studies disrupted

Push for global alliances on a previously unseen scale to accelerate much needed innovation in the sector

World leaders in education, Ministers and officials from 40 countries, together with specialist NGOs are meeting virtually today to help set in motion far-reaching changes to education in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

They are coming together at RewirEdX, one of the key initiatives of the RewirEd global education platform launched at the 75th UN General Assembly earlier this year.

Leaders driving the change at the event include former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, now the UN’s Special Envoy for Global Education; Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia & Chair, Global Partnership for Education; Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF, Executive Director and Tariq Fancy, CIO of Sustainability at BlackRock & Founder of The Rumie Initiative.

RewirEdX is billed as a key staging-post on the road to long-term collective change in education whereby the lessons learned from COVID-19 can be rolled out universally. Chief amongst these is the vital importance of connectivity in underpinning effective distance learning and so making education accessible to all.

Even before Coronavirus struck, education was in crisis. 617 million young people lack basic maths and literacy skills while by 2030, 200 million children were projected to have no schooling at all and only 60% would complete upper secondary education.

Experts believe the widespread disruption of children’s studies by the pandemic will further increase the disparities in education. Learning opportunities will become further reduced for girls, as well as for those living in poor or rural areas, those living with disabilities, refugees and those forcibly displaced.

This year’s virtual conference is a precursor to the December 2021 summit, part of the major Expo 2020 event in Dubai, which will focus on three main issues in the sector – youth and future skills, education financing and innovation in education. The summit will set goals of equitable access to quality education worldwide, showcasing scalable innovations from all the participating countries with the aim of securing agreement on the key commitments which will transform young people’s learning and earning potential in the next 10 years.