Post-COVID action for public education report

The International Commission on Education Futures developed nine ideas for public action, knowing that the pandemic will forever transform education. These ideas for action are the commission’s attempt to actively shape the future of education and help strengthen and enhance its power for all students, including those in developing nations.

• Commit to strengthen education as a common good.
• Value the teaching profession and teacher collaboration. 
• Promote youth participation and rights.
• Address the importance of connectivity and access to knowledge and information.
• Make free and open-source technologies available to teachers and students. 
• Ensure scientific literacy within the curriculum.
• Protect domestic and international financing of public education.
• Advance global solidarity to end current levels of inequality.
• Protect school's social spaces.

Education in a post-COVID world. (2021). UNESCO. 

https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/unescos-nine-ideas-for-education/

Literacy Efforts Analysis

UNESCO's new publication takes stock of youth and adult literacy interventions which have been implemented since 1966, when UNESCO held its first International Literacy Day. It sheds light on the literacy-related challenges the world is now facing, as it embarks on the implementation of the2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The publication begins with an analysis of trends in literacy rates at the regional and global levels, and identifies fifty countries that have made notable progress. It then reflects on emerging conceptions of literacy, from ‘literacy as a stand-alone skill' to 'functional literacy’ for work and livelihood, to 'literacy for empowerment’ of poor and marginalized populations and finally to 'literacy as social practice’, shaped by the cultural context in which it is applied. These four conceptions are illustrated by a wide range of literacy campaigns, programs and policies, implemented within the fifty selected countries. Finally, the publication envisages the possible future of literacy from the perspective of sustainable development, lifelong learning and digital societies, with a focus on the need for urgency of action.
UNESCO. (2017). Reading the past, writing the future: Fifty years of promoting literacy. Paris, France: UNESCO.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002475/247563e.pdf

Research on textbook gender bias

Textbooks may not include enough female characters or too often may portray women in submissive gender roles, according to data released by UNESCO. The data, released to celebrate International Women's Day, revealed that women are underrepresented in textbooks and curricula, researchers noted.
Benavot, A., & Jere, C. (2016). Gender bias is rife in textbooks. World Education Blog (March 8).
https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/gender-bias-is-rife-in-textbooks/