The latest UNESCO report sounds the alarm about growing inequalities in education. These inequalities were widened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted schools to turn to new technologies to continue teaching. However, not all students have the same access to these technologies.
“A Tragedy of Education in the Technological Age”. The name given to UNESCO’s latest report sets the tone. During 655 pages, the latter is interested in the repercussions in the pandemic of COVID-19 on education, and in particular the dependence on technology which resulted from it to maintain the rhythm of the courses. While the latter has certainly enabled teachers around the world to continue to transmit knowledge, the United Nations’ observation is clear: it has also deepened inequalities between students.
At the start of 2020, the world is entering its first phase of confinement, forcing schools to find solutions to maintain the education of children. Distance courses are then presented as the ideal alternative, after years of intensive promotion by the big names in tech. At the time, it even seemed that it was the only conceivable replacement, allowing millions of students to find themselves and have access to the necessary documentation.
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There were better solutions than online courses during the pandemic, says UNESCO
In May 2020, 60% of online courses required an Internet connection. However, according to UNESCO, this condition has excluded around 500 million students worldwide, due to a lack of access to a stable network or the necessary equipment. In the United States as in Pakistan, it is thus a third of the students who were deprived of education during this period. Only the wealthiest households were able to continue classes normally.
Another problem, digital education has considerably reduced the share of formal learning, replaced mainly by various computer tasks, such as exploring files and taking control of educational platforms. The students thus found themselves forced to “move through automated learning content, check for updates on company platforms, and endure long video calls,” notes UNESCO.
The organization also deplores the lack of socialization between students and the absence of extracurricular activities, which has pushed many of them to drop out of school. “Available data clearly indicates that the positives of ed-tech experiences during the pandemic, while important and worthy of attention, have been largely overshadowed by the failures,” write the United Nations. UNESCO’s findings are clear: it is above all the large tech companies that have benefited from this push towards online teaching, to the detriment of the human aspect of education.
UNESCO advocates a return to low-tech in education
The report received an overall very favorable reception from experts in the sector. Paul Lekas, director of public policy for the Software & Information Industry Association, an association that counts Google, Apple and Amazon among its members, called the document “extremely important”. “There are a lot of lessons to be learned from how digital education has played out during the pandemic and ways to bridge the digital divide. »
Furthermore, UNESCO has not forgotten to point the finger at the rise of AI in the field of education, which has launched countless debates in recent months, calling for an empowering use of tools by students rather than a ban. Among the other recommendations of the organization, we also find a return to less advanced solutions, but much more adopted by the population, such as courses by television or radio, or even sending documentation by mail.
Finally, UNESCO calls for more regulation around connected tools, as well as more comprehensive teacher training. In the future, a return to face-to-face earlier is also recommended. In 2021, the CNIL was already alerting to the excesses of the arrival of digital tools in education.
Source: UNESCO