We will overcome this global crisis

Lyfta
Content Team
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Lyfta News
In this follow up to part one, Penny Rabiger, director of engagement at Lyfta, suggests we build a vision for the rebirthing of education with an emphasis on global citizenship.
Covid 19
Covid 19
"The COVID-19 pandemic is a defining moment for modern society, and history will judge the efficacy of our response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors to the benefit of our human family. The United Nations global footprint at the national level is an asset for the global community to be leveraged to deliver the ambition needed to win the war against the virus. With the right actions, the COVID-19 pandemic can mark the rebirthing of society as we know it today to one where we protect present and future generations. It is the greatest test that we have faced since the formation of the United Nations, one that requires all actors - governments, academia, businesses, employers and workers' organisations, civil society organisations, communities and individuals - to act in solidarity in new, creative, and deliberate ways for the common good and based on the core United Nations values that we uphold for humanity."- Shared responsibility, global solidarity: responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19' p23
As we reflect and learn from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals and society as a whole, it is our hope at Lyfta that an even clearer shared language of civic engagement and collective social responsibility will take centre stage. We believe that school leaders are in fact civic leaders - who use their autonomy to create spaces where change and progress can happen in ways that work for their communities and that both provide models for, and draw on learning from, other communities worldwide.
A new focus for schools will be considering their digital strategy - not just for their students but also for staff CPD. We are hopeful that with a renewed focus on weaving online and face-to-face activities into the curriculum and ensuring digital equality for all students as part of their gap-closing priorities for the future, schools will be able to engage with global citizenship as a given at every age and stage of their students' education.
No-one can be sure where schools will find themselves when the call to return to the 'new normal' is made. One thing we can expect is that teachers and students alike will have a renewed focus on how we use, integrate and combine the elements of independent, online and face-to-face learning - whether that be learning by students or indeed teacher CPD.
More than ever, we remain committed to our mission at Lyfta to ensure that, by the time a child has completed their education, they will have been able to visit every country in the world, and will have learned from at least one human story from each place they find themselves in the world. We want to support the leaders of tomorrow to be world-wise, globally aware and to bravely consider the UN's global goals as our collective social responsibility wherever we are in the world, and whatever the obstacles we find ourselves up against, now and in the future.
By Penny Rabiger, director of engagement at Lyfta
Social Emotional Learning
Sustainability & Global Citizenship