Schools Demand Political Support To Prioritise Resilience Over Efficiency

Head teachers of schools selected for a global conference and best practise showcase have called on their governments to prioritise resilience over efficiency in their schools and to heed the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The schools gathered together for the inaugural World Education Week, an online conference where over 110,000 teachers and educational figures registered to share best practice in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and from that joined together to make an urgent call to political leaders ‘to re-frame how they view the management of education funding and the purpose of the institutions they’ve asked us to build.‘

The request came in an open letter to leaders and education ministers across the globe where noted that, “For too long, our education systems have placed too great an emphasis on delivering learning outcomes in ways that not only minimise cost and juggle resources but judge our abilities to be “efficient” to be of a higher importance, even if it’s mostly unspoken.”

Instead, the school leaders suggest, “What this year has emphasised is that the resilience to meet huge challenges is the key to maintaining the continuity of education for our children, both to ensure the highest standards of learning and to re-establish the social glue of schools as communities. This requires financial investment and leadership.”

The creator of World Education Week, the education and technology innovator, Vikas Pota supported the initiative, saying, "The school leaders and teachers who gathered together in huge numbers this week were united in their desire to learn together from our current crisis and to see systemic change in the way we support schools and education. This letter is, I hope, a positive contribution to that debate.”

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