RewirEDX: Gordon Brown: “Time lost in education this year cannot be lost for good”

@OfficeGSBrown : “Time lost in education this year cannot be lost for good” @RewirEd2021

• Gordon Brown amongst 80 speakers from 40 countries for RewirEdX 
• Former UK Prime Minister says he was ‘shocked’ by the level of coordination during the crisis and that ‘it has not been good enough’
• Global leaders in education say International Cooperation a must to safeguard the future of education
• Collaboration between ‘new and unlikely allies’ highlighted as key

Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education has said that he has been ‘shocked’ by the level of coordination over the last year.

The former UK Prime Minister was speaking at the opening session of RewirEdX which focused on the implications of such an unprecedented year for the education sector.

“What has shocked me in the last year is that while there have been so many great initiatives by countries, individuals and organisations, the overall level of co-ordination has not been good enough.” Said Gordon Brown. He also called for “a strengthening of international co-operation at government leaders’ level over the next year”.

RewirEdX is billed as a key staging-post on the road to long-term collective change in education whereby the lessons learned from COVID-19 can be rolled out universally. Chief amongst these is the vital importance of connectivity in underpinning effective distance learning and so making education accessible to all.

Mr Brown said 150 billion in Education budgets are set to be lost over the next year and that there is a requirement to look at “innovative financing” and multi-lateral not bi-lateral funding. He also commented that the G20 has a role in getting world leaders “committed to wiring up the world”.

“We need to have a recovery initiative taken by the leaders of the world. Part of that global initiative must be the centrality of education because education unlocks health, it unlocks gender equality, it unlocks sustainable development, and employment opportunity. We’ve got to be single minded about this”.

“There are 800 million learning poor. We must have a recovery fund which speaks to this.”

The Italian Minister of Public Education, Lucia Azzolina also agreed that it was key to mobilise leaders from across the world to invest in education.

Azzolina and Brown were joined on the panel by Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF who commented “This is a moment that we have as a World.  It is one that we should not waste. So if the G7 and the G20 next year and The World Bank, IMF and World Economic Forum can drive this as the number one issue, the issue that will change the world (by) bring equality. The most marginalised children just do not have a chance because they’re not connected, but if we can connect every school in the world to the internet, and every leaver to learning, it will change the future of our world. It will give us a world in which everyone has an opportunity.”

Julia Gillard, former Australian Prime Minister & Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education said “What we have learnt from this year is the pressing issue of the digital divide.” The GPE has provided $580m (USD) in funding so far during the crisis putting “gender at the heart of the response” following its learnings from the previous Ebola crisis.

Much of the discussion was centred around the technology infrastructure required in the future but Ms Gillard highlighted that “Technology needs teachers to make it come alive. If we are going to transform Education around the World we need to also be investing in high quality teaching. If we want to do big things then we need to do it at a massive scale.”