Will the coronavirus crisis lead to a fundamental change in education?

As schools closed across the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, education systems were forced to come face to face with the limitations of traditional schooling. In all sectors, technology picked up the slack when physical work environments became unfeasible, and education was no exception – technologies that were previously relegated to the fringes of pedagogical practice suddenly became the only way teaching and learning could take place. Coronavirus has rapidly accelerated society’s increasing reliance on technology, and any sector entrenched too deeply in the old industrial work organisation risks getting left behind. Is education one of them? Has the crisis exposed ways in which education simply isn’t up to date with the modern world? To discuss this, we caught up via teleconference with Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All, Roberto Benes, Director of Generation Unlimited, and Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills.