Qatar Foundation's(QF) Vice Chairperson and CEO Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, emphasized the future of learning during a global panel discussion organized by Qatar Foundation as part of its contribution to the 2020 Global Goals Week.

Speaking during the panel of discussion HE Sheikha Hind said that quick fixes enforced by COVID-19 must not detract from what education’s ultimate goal is or be limited to the access to technology. 

The panel session titled, COVID-19 and Education: The Largest Disruption in the History of Education, brought together experts and education advocates from around the world to explore whether the pandemic can be a catalyst for a genuine educational transformation.

During the discussion, HE Sheikha Hind described disruption in education as now being “a way of life”.

“We talk about access to technology, but it is just a tool – it doesn’t really look at whether our children are learning or not, or how it will help them prosper in the world. - We have to go back to what we are teaching our children, and for what purpose.”

“Why don’t we invest our time in a long-term fix rather than a short-term one? It’s not that technology is irrelevant, or that we shouldn’t provide more technology or more internet networks for communities that need them, but let’s not lose our focus on the true purpose of education and what its true goal should be,'' she said.

“Technology is not a fix for everything. Now, we are in a pandemic and we have to make do with what we have, so our reaction is to try to continue education by doing it online. But is that the ultimate for my children? Absolutely not. We can’t create technology that substitutes for a learning environment that encompasses so many different elements, and is not just about the content and the knowledge that a child acquires.”

Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al-Thani emphasized that quick fixes enforced by COVID-19 pandemic must not detract from what education’s ultimate goal should be and the world needs to think beyond technology to bring about desired change #QNA pic.twitter.com/xEQY6V0cLb

— Qatar News Agency (@QNAEnglish) September 23, 2020

While saying that the world is, “not even close to disrupting education to how it should look”,HE Sheikha Hind explained that “What has happened today, with COVID-19, has allowed us to reflect on how some tools that we thought were so important have actually proved to be irrelevant.''

“The fact students didn’t have to sit exams and still graduated from high school and managed to go to university tells us a lot. There are ways around things that we thought were core principles of how education should look.''

“Once we figure out what the true purpose of education is, a lot of the issues we face will be resolved. If our ultimate purpose is to nurture self-motivated learners, whether they are children or adults, these issues would be miniscule,”she added.

Speaking about her own vision for the future of education, HE Sheikha Hind said,“Moving forward, we must recognize that whatever we have been doing for centuries is obviously not working, and the pandemic has proven to us that even the quick fixes we have had are also not working.''

“The question now is how we work in parallel – providing the short-term solutions we do need for children, parents, and teachers who are suffering, but at the same time having a long-term vision to understand what our ultimate goal is. Is it to graduate a number of students every year, or is there really a purpose behind what we do?''

“Much more reflection is happening in education today, because we have a feeling that our education systems are not resilient enough. The more we experiment and take risks, the better prepared we will be the future. And we should not be worried about taking risks; we are in a pandemic and people are willing to try new things, because we have seen first-hand that what we have is not working for everyone.”

Danilo Türk, former President of Slovenia, who warned that COVID-19 had had deepened “faultlines between those who can afford distance learning and those who cannot”,also joined the discussion and suggested that countries such as Qatar that have had “a long-term vision for education” can show leadership in this field to the world.

During the discussion, Sarah Cliffe, Director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University said, “We need to focus on people-centered education in a broad sense – the education of children and young people as members of society who want to grow throughout their lives, not only people who we want to encourage to be part of the economy.''

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Source and Cover image Credit: Qatar Foundation