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UNESCO brought together members of the and representatives from Member States to discuss next steps for the recently formed Digital Transformation Collaborative (DTC).

The event, which took place during the Education World Forum in London on 10 May 2023, focused on the country impact of the DTC, which was formed by 30 members of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition to provide on-the-ground digital technology resources and expertise for the acceleration of digital education in transformation.

Attended by Ministers of Education, including representatives from Egypt, South Africa and Uruguay, the side event sought to identify in which countries the Collaborative will pilot its work and actions in 2023. The group will then establish coordinated partnerships that facilitate long-term and ever-evolving digital transformations, that adapt to specific country contexts, and that harness the power of digital learning to close the educational divides through cooperative actions and investments.

Chairing the event, UNESCO Assistant Director-General Stefania Giannini emphasized that digital transformation in education is an ever-evolving journey and that one-size projects do not fit different countries’ needs in the same way. “We need to abandon the culture of pilot projects and move to a culture of change and transformation,” Ms Giannini said.

Multistakeholder partnerships and concrete resource mobilization can enable this transformation, she added, and this is precisely what the DTC aims to facilitate. Through a theory of change revolving around five C’s – coordination, content, capacity, connectivity, and cost – and addressing resource gaps in a smart way, “we can move the needle and transform education into digital education,” said Ms Giannini.

Work is ongoing by DTC members to develop a framework for its actions and collaborations. Dina Ghobashy, Senior Manager Digital for Transformation Leadership at Microsoft – one of the founding members of the DTC – emphasized that the group wants to ensure this framework is as useful as possible to participating countries.

Countries are at different stages of the digital transformation journey, and they can fall anywhere on a spectrum of three points designed by the DTC, said Ms Ghobashy. A questionnaire is also under development – the aim of which is not to evaluate Ministries', rank countries or put them in columns, but rather to highlight how countries are progressing on each of the five Cs and provide guidance for next steps., she explained.

During the event, Member State representatives shared their country priorities as well as the biggest challenges they face in advancing digital education. The capacity of teachers remains a key issue. Matsie Angelina Motshekga, South Africa’s Minister of Basic Education, noted that many of the most experienced teaching professionals have left the country and that there is “huge inequality” in training opportunities and information access. An open-source platform is needed, she said, to allow teachers to build their skills and grow independently with coordination and leadership support.

From Uruguay, Gonzalo Baroni Boces, the National Director for the Ministry of Eduation and Culture, emphasized the importance of teacher preparedness and buy-in. While Uruguay already had some infrastructure in place which assisted the transition to distance learning during the pandemic, teachers were not equipped for this sudden shift. Mr Boces also highlighted the need for partnerships with private sector companies, particularly telecom companies – to ensure that learners can use devices to access learning planforms and content outside of the classroom – and with the people that control the purse strings, such as the Ministry of Finance.

Ms Giannini agreed that high level political will must be a precondition to the digital transformation, as this fosters buy-in from relevant Ministries as well teacher unions and communities. Additionally, there must be innovation – not just on a technological level – but in governance and organization.

Other challenges which were highlighted included ensuring a balance between technologies and people centric-design, and considerations around security and trust.

Zohra Yermeche, Head of Ericsson's Global Flagship Education Program, outlined the challenges in making cross-sector collaborations work in an effective and sustainable way. It’s important to understand what the DTC’s cooperation model will be, she said, and this involves not just identifying key stakeholders but what the role and expectation is of every partner involved. Based on different sectors, this could involve connectivity devices or content training, she explained, but there must be a common value proposition.

Members of the DTC are working to fine-tune the cooperation model, some aspects of which will be customizable based on the needs identified by the countries, as well as analysing which financial models and mechanism have worked in different contexts. The first countries for DTC engagement will then be selected. During the event, Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education, Dr. Reda Hegazy, expressed his country’s readiness to embrace digital transformation. While Egypt has boosted its digital learning since COVID-19, Dr Hegazy said his priority going forward is to ensure that teachers lead in content creation and play an active role in transforming education.  

Reflecting on discussions throughout the Education World Forum – the largest annual gathering of education and skills ministers in the world – Borhene Chakroun, Director for the Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems with UNESCO’s Education Sector said, “there is a clear appetite for the support through the Digital Transformation Collaborative from different contexts and different governments [and] ministries.”

The Digital Transformation Collaborative, which was officially launched at the annual meeting of the Global Education Coalition in March 2023, emerged from the private sector and donor conversations during the Transforming Education Summit last year.

• Find out more about this new collaborative