Unesco Rolls Out Training Of Teachers On Open And Distance Education

Leo Migdal

-Dec 12, 2025, 9:54 PM

unesco rolls out training of teachers on open and distance education

The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa is rolling out training of over 1500 teachers through its Rapid Teacher Training Programme on Open, Distance and Online Learning. 20 teacher trainers produced in February 2021 are rolling out the training to teachers on WhatsApp. The programme is divided into three modules focused on high-tech, low tech and no tech tools. Various methods of teaching learners remotely will be explored, including hybrid or blended learning approaches, relevant for the Zimbabwean context. The objective of the programme is to equip Zimbabwean teachers with skills and resources to deliver different forms of remote learning. The COVID pandemic has shone a spotlight on the need for countries across the globe to invest in education systems that respond effectively to disasters and enable teaching and learning to continue during and...

It marked a pivotal moment towards the worldwide adoption of open and digital learning as part of attempts to promote learning continuity under home-confined lockdown conditions. Technology can and will not replace teachers in the coming years but we see technology playing a major role in complementing and improving the quality and access to education. This means that teachers need to accompany and facilitate this process and therefore need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to do so. The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, is therefore investing in capacity building and training of teachers to fully utilize open, distance and online learning opportunities. School closures were mandated as part of public health efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 from February 2020 in most countries. Education systems around the world are facing an unprecedented challenge.

Governmental agencies are working with international organizations, private sector partners and civil society to deliver education remotely through a mix of technologies in order to ensure continuity of curriculum-based study and learning for all. UNESCO has been working to mitigate the impact of education disruption and school closures. In response to the pandemic, UNESCO has produced various distance learning resources to support teachers and policy-makers. The following resources offer best practices, innovative ideas and practical information. UNESCO is supporting the organization of several workshops based on the publication Ensuring effective distance learning during COVID-19 disruption: guidance for teachers following a call for proposals that attracted almost 200 entries. The first workshop was held online on 20-21 October 2021, sponsored by the Faculty of Specific Education at Alexandria University in Egypt.

Organized by Prof. Mona Sharaf Abdelgalil, the session was attended by 211 teachers from different educational departments, including 80% female teachers. The second set of workshops (six in-person, and one hybrid) took place in Zimbabwe from 5 to 24 November 2021, organized by Learning Factory and Mr Addi Mavengere. These workshops reached a total of 95 participants, including 67% female teachers, 64% from rural communities, and 1% with physical impairment. Six other pilot workshops were held in-person in Ethiopia by Mr Inku Fasil, targeting 120 teachers in Bahirdar, Addis Ababa and Adama from 13 November to 2 December 2021. Decide on the use high-technology and low-technology solutions based on the reliability of local power supplies, internet connectivity, and digital skills of teachers and students.

This could range through integrated digital learning platforms, video lessons, MOOCs, to broadcasting through radios and TVs. Implement measures to ensure that students including those with disabilities or from low-income backgrounds have access to distance learning programmes, if only a limited number of them have access to digital devices. Consider temporarily decentralizing such devices from computer labs to families and support them with internet connectivity. The Global Teacher Campus (GTC) provides free online courses for teachers and educators to improve their skills and competencies for different learning environments. These self-paced courses are facilitated by experts and cover topics such as digital pedagogy, social and emotional learning, psychosocial support, and curriculum management. The GTC aims to help 1 million teachers gain digital skills and access professional development opportunities by 2025.

Globally, there is an urgent need for 44 million primary and secondary teachers. This includes a demand for seven out of ten teachers at the secondary level and a need to replace over half of the existing teachers leaving the profession. Sub-Saharan Africa is especially affected, with an estimated need for 15 million new teachers by 2030. To achieve its goal, the GTC mission leverages UNESCO and partner relationships with training institutions as well as GEC-developed regional platforms, including Imaginecole and ImagineLearning. These platforms were developed to offer countries across Francophone and Anglophone Africa access to the GTC’s materials and facilitate the adaptation of content to local context and educational needs. As of 2023, almost 800,000 teachers have already benefited from GTC initiatives and activities.

The mission is evolving to help countries develop and offer their own digital professional development pathways to their teachers. Andrew Moore is a senior manager at Neil Butcher and Associates (NBA), an educational technology consultancy firm based in Johannesburg South Africa, and has over 14 years' experience of teaching secondary education in Cape... He holds a Masters of Education degree from the University of Pretoria and has worked as an author, materials developer, instructional designer, web interface designer, and educational technology trainer. He is currently a project manager supporting projects that harness OER and the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (CFT) engaging Ministries of Education and educators around the developing world, including West, East and... Jonah Mungoshi is an international award-winning facilitator for in-person, online, and radio-based training with almost 20 years’ of diverse experience, including over 10 years in radio broadcasting presenting educational programmes. He is one of only 10 British Council validated master trainers in Africa for the flagship Connecting Classrooms programme, which empowers teachers and school leaders through mastery of 21st century skills and has designed...

He has also been involved in piloting innovative online educational programmes, including Teaching Enterprise Skills in theUK, Core Skills for TVET College Lecturers in– South Africa, and Progression in Core Skills for Curriculum Developers... Lovemore Ndlovu is a leading teacher professional development specialist with almost 30 years of experience, including 14 years as an assessment manager and as a lecturer and consultant working across different stakeholders, ranging from... He holds a Doctor of Education degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and has extensive experience in design and implementation of education programmes in the area of teacher professional development, distance learning,... He is also a researcher, author, and learning materials developer. The UNESCO Open Learning website works best with current versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari, or with Internet Explorer version 9 and above. The Global Teacher Campus (GTC) is a flagship program of UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition.

It seeks to provide teachers and educators with opportunities to improve their pedagogical knowledge and practice through a wide selection of upskilling courses ranging from Mental Health Psychosocial Support/Social Emotional Learning (MHPSS/SEL) and digital... In recent times, new educational challenges and demands have emerged and require reconsidering educational offers and upskilling the changemakers at the forefront of such transformations: teachers. A motivated teacher in the classroom is the single most important school-based factor to ensure quality education and learning outcomes. The current global “teachers’ gap”, the teachers’ shortage, is both quantitative and qualitative, as many are lacking sufficient skills and training, due to shortage and on-ramping recruitments. Teachers have adapted their practice to cater to longstanding and emerging needs and to a variety of contexts, yet they need to beempowered within well-resourced, efficient, and effectively governed systems. The most efficient approach to closing the gap is support preparedness by providing content, format, and pedagogies diversification beyond the technological upskilling: a sound preparation on crisis trauma-informed practices, social and emotional learning, education...

The GTC offers teachers, teacher educators, and teacher training institutions a curated online catalogue of self-paced and facilitated courses. All offers are free of charge. Teachers and teacher educators can access the self-paced courses by clicking the link provided. Jonah Mungoshi is an international award-winning facilitator for in-person, online, and radio-based training with almost 20 years’ of diverse experience, including over 10 years in radio broadcasting presenting educational programmes. He is one of only 10 British Council validated master trainers in Africa for the flagship Connecting Classrooms programme, which empowers teachers and school leaders through mastery of 21st century skills and has designed... He has also been involved in piloting innovative online educational programmes, including Teaching Enterprise Skills in theUK, Core Skills for TVET College Lecturers in– South Africa, and Progression in Core Skills for Curriculum Developers...

Lovemore Ndlovu is a leading teacher professional development specialist with almost 30 years of experience, including 14 years as an assessment manager and as a lecturer and consultant working across different stakeholders, ranging from... He holds a Doctor of Education degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and has extensive experience in design and implementation of education programmes in the area of teacher professional development, distance learning,... He is also a researcher, author, and learning materials developer. The UNESCO Open Learning website works best with current versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari, or with Internet Explorer version 9 and above.

Unesco Rolls Out Training Of Teachers On Open And Distance Education

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