European Schoolnet's latest report urges policymakers to take time to reflect on lessons learned during Covid-19, to re-think and re-shape school education.

"If  there  is  one  lesson to learn from recent events, it is that we need to help schools to prepare students  for  this  unpredictable  future.  School  education  systems   therefore   need   to   become   more   resilient   and   flexible."

Between December 2021 and June 2022 European Schoolnet hosted a number of webinars on the topic "Re-imagine School Education Beyond Covid-19". We invited policymakers, schools leaders, teachers and other education stakeholders to share their observations and ideas about quality digital resources, (digital) assessment and monitoring of school systems, student and teacher well-being, schools,  as part of wider communities and other key issues for the school education of the future. This report summarizes these exchanges and presents the collective learning experiences of 19 webinar speakers from 11 countries and 27 webinar participants.

In the course of the discussions several shared priorities emerged:

• The first one is that the world is becoming increasingly unpredictable and schools have the responsibility to prepare students for life and work in this uncertain future. Pupils need to come out of the education system prepared to participate in decision making on global challenges, including climate change. To achieve this, educational institutions need to become more resilient and flexible themselves, a process in which the role of platforms for exchange and cooperation such as European Schoolnet will be crucial.

• The second shared priority is the need to equip students not only with academic knowledge in various school subjects but also to equip them with 21st-century skills such as communication skills, collaboration skills and creativity. The ability to cooperate with diverse teams will become more and more important in the future and K12 education offers a great opportunity to teach pupils these skills from early on.

• The third shared priority is the transition to digital education and the growing use of digital resources. Participants offered their observations on how digital education can be designed and re-designed to support and promote student and teacher wellbeing. The general consensus is that strong interpersonal connections between students and between students and teachers remain central to the success of digital learning environments but there is a need to more strongly recognise their significance in school strategies.

• The fourth priority identified during the webinar series was the importance of collecting student data and using it as a solid empirical basis for further reflections on improving teaching methodologies and learning outcomes.

Following the success of these webinars, European Schoolnet remains committed to providing ministries of education, experts, school leaders, teachers, industry partners and other stakeholders with opportunities for continued exchange on the future of education. Between October 2022  and May 2023,  we  will  organise  another round of  webinars focused  on  how  digitally processed data can foster student learning.

This third series of webinars will address a  range  of  topics  around  trust  and  safety  aspects,  ownership  of  data, interpretation and usability of data, exchange of  data  and  its  ethical  use,  as  well  as  aspects of inclusion and equity and implications for ecosystem governance, technical infrastructure, and continuous professional development. Stay tuned!

Download the report "Re-imagine School Education Beyond Covid-19"