Gaborone-based preschool Humpty Dumpty Nursery School has been selected to represent Botswana in a rare online conference which is in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on Quality Education (SDG 4). Supported by Learn To Play – Ithute Go Tshameka, the preschool will represent Botswana at an an event billed as the “World’s biggest education conference.”
The showcase of 100 schools will gather online to share expertise and best practices during the inaugural World Education Week, which is to be held from 5-9th October, on their web site. Registration began on the 1st September. Humpty Dumpty Nursery School says it is privileged to represent Botswana on this global platform as one of the schools pioneering positive impact.
“The hand-picked schools will join together in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on Quality Education (SDG 4) and share their expertise across a range of educational themes, such as enhancing employability and life-skills; deepening family and community engagement; the use of technology; a focus on wellbeing; and promoting the science of learning and teaching.”
World Education Week is an effort by 30 civil society organisations coming together after the record breaking T4 conference on 30th May that was attended by over 100 000 teachers. It aims to promote a higher and better standard of education for all by helping to accelerate progress to achieve UN SDG 4- a commitment designed to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.
“World Education Week will allow schools all over the world to learn and innovate together, sharing best practice and improving education from grassroots up. We are proud to be a founding school of a project that unites, celebrates and pioneers programmes of impact,” says Priyanka Handa Ram, director of Humpty Dumpty and Ithute Go Tshameka.
The schools, chosen from every continent and from kindergartens to secondary level, have centred on the theme of ‘Learning Today’, and each school will host a virtual event to demonstrate how to bring change, based on their own innovations and successes.
Humpty Dumpty Nursery School is to host a one-hour presentation to train a global community on the country’s unique COVID-19 response: the REWA Story Curriculum is rooted in play, early literacy and wellbeing.
The ground-breaking event will be led by Vikas Pota, a globally-respected leader and driving force in the education, international development, and philanthropy and technology sectors. In launching the event, Pota said: “I am incredibly inspired by the schools that applied to take part in this year’s World Education Week. Their commitment to improving the life chances of their learners by nurturing expertise and wanting to share their experience with others, especially in these challenging times, says a lot about the global education community. They are our heroes and World Education Week provides us all an opportunity not just to learn from them, but to celebrate their successes, too.”
“By sharing the ways in which these schools have developed their expertise, we can encourage others to feel inspired to undertake the same journey to excellence. That is a real and tangible way in which World Education Week can accelerate progress on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals”
Well-supported event
The conference has won the backing of Andreas Schleicher, the director for education and Skills at the OECD, who said: “What’s exciting about World Education Week is the idea of schools around the world sharing their expertise with their peers. After a turbulent period in global education, this is a great way of building back better.”
The project is also welcomed by Jaime Saavedra, the global director for education at the World Bank: “The sheer scale of educators around the globe combining to share expertise, excellence and wisdom in accelerating learning is hugely impressive. If all educators learn from the best educators of their countries and of the world we would make immense progress in ensuring inclusive, equitable and quality education for all.”
David Edwards, general secretary of Education International – the global federation of teacher unions commented in support: “Teachers have amazed the world by taking the lead in this time of crisis.
World Education Week is showcasing schools adapting to unprecedented challenges and striving for excellence illustrates that continuing determination against the odds to serve our students. Next comes the hard part – making sure that governments and educators and communities take safe and innovative practices across the world as examples, to build back better a public sector guaranteeing a quality education for every student.”
