This session will examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of people around the world, with a focus on work and education. The Covid-19 pandemic has been labelled as the defining global health challenge of our times, but it is more than that: it is also an unprecedented social and economic crisis, the likes of which the world has not witnessed since the Second World War.
Efforts are being made to ensure economic stability and continued productivity as the world continues to struggle to contain the disease. As part of this process, both work and education have undergone significant changes that may have been considered impossible before the pandemic such as widespread remote work and mass online education. This session will analyse whether the current conditions around remote work and education are necessary and appropriate for the ongoing crisis, the issue of equity when it comes to education and employment opportunities, and how these changes might impact the future of how we work and how we learn.
Discussion Themes
This session intends to discuss the following:
• What would ideal work conditions look like in a post-pandemic world?
• How might advancements in online education be deployed in schools even once the pandemic has passed?
• Given the digital divide, can the pandemic widen the learning gaps in education?
• How can countries achieve equity regarding educational and employment opportunities for their citizens?
• How might people with disabilities, parents with kids and others who cannot go to school benefit from today’s solutions in the future?
• Has the pandemic merely fast-tracked inevitable changes in both work and education that were already underway?
