April 29, 2020. The UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, with the support of the UNESCO Tashkent Office, held an online conference on COVID-19 response of the Education Sector in Central Asia. The conference was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Education of the four Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) responsible for distance learning, Information and communications technologies in education and crisis response policy, as well as by international experts and UNESCO specialists.
The experts discussed the policy on distance learning, considered education strategies to respond to the crisis, and exchanged good practices and national experiences to use continuing learning solutions to COVID-19 education response.
Mr Laziz Khujakulov, Head of ICT Implementation Coordination Department of the Ministry of Public Education of Uzbekistan (MOPE), presented an overview of the country’s educational response to this crisis with a focus on the Government’s Strategy for continuing learning at three levels: general secondary education; education sector, in general,/cross-sectoral; and, preschool education. At present, MOPE has already broadcast 1836 video lessons in Russian, Uzbek and Karakalpak languages, amounting to more than 900 hours of duration.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected education systems around the world because most governments have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic. Nationwide school closures are impacting over 91% of the world’s student population, including countries of Central Asia.
In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan school closures have affected over 14 million learners. The countries and their education ministries have put most of the schools and other educational institutions on distance learning by deploying different distance learning platforms and digital learning solutions. On 30 April 2020, Tajikistan officially confirmed first cases of COVID-19. Nationwide school closure was announced in the country a few days earlier. Turkmenistan is the only country in the region with no COVID-19 cases detected yet, but the country is also taking precautionary measures such as cancelling major events, extending the school spring breaks, etc.
In the context of widespread school closures, UNESCO is working at the global level with ministries of education in COVID-19 affected countries to ensure continued learning for all children and youth through:
- Global education coalition to support countries in scaling up their best distance learning practices and reaching children and youth.
- Technical assistance to quickly prepare and deploy inclusive distant learning solutions, utilizing hi-tech, low-tech and no-tech approaches.
- Webinars for the minister of education officials and other stakeholders to share information about country efforts to maintain the provision of inclusive education in different contexts.
- A selection of digital learning resources that governments, schools, teachers, parents can use to open opportunities for learners unable to attend school.
- A repository of national learning platforms designed to support the continuity of curriculum-based study.
- Partnerships to expand national and local capacities to assure the remote provision of education.
- Global monitoring of country-wide and localized school closures and the number of learners affected.