eLearning and eTraining report
Digital: Resetting education and training The European Commission is aiming to reset education and training across all member states in ambitious plan to be finalised by 2022. Preparation for the digital age, in the form of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027), has been identified by the European Commission as critical to developing a fairer and more sustainable Europe. Much of the strategy’s ambitions are not new and the core components of the Commission’s previous two-year strategy, including better use of digital technology, development on competencies and skills and improvement through better data analysis remain. However, core to the new strategy is that adoption of learnings brought about in response to the pandemic. The Commission launched a public consultation of its new action plan in June 2020, outlining two strategic priorities in the form of plans to “foster the development of a high-performing digital education eco-system” and “enhance digital skills and
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competencies for the digital transformation”. The EU Commission adopted the Action Plan for Digital Education at the end of September 2020 in response to the Covid-19 crisis, however, the expansion of the length of the plan to seven years from its predecessor has signalled an intention to not only address the disparities in digital education highlighted by the pandemic but also to put in place a strategic and longer-term approach to digital education and training. The seven-year period will enable the plan to better align with the programme period of the EU and leverage various funding instruments such as Erasmus +, Horizon Europe, the Recovery and Resilience Facility. UNESCO estimates that more than 1.6 billion learners across the globe (91 per cent of the world’s school population) had their learning affected by the first
wave of the pandemic. However, while there was impact on a broad scale, undoubtedly the pandemic also served to exacerbate inequalities in educational opportunities. The EU Commission has recognised a greater responsibility to increase access to digital learning for every child, to enable them to fulfil their potential. 2019 Eurostat figures estimate that access to broadband varies significantly across EU member states ranging from 74 per cent of households for the lowest-income quartile to 97 per cent in the highest-income quartile. Meanwhile, while this figure is likely to have increased in response to the pandemic, an OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey put just 39 per cent of educators in the EU as well or very well prepared for using digital technologies in their daily work, with the figure varying significantly across member states.
