• 13 December, 2021

• Discussion around the recommendations of the UNESCO’s ‘Reimagining our Futures Together’ Report
• Day 2 agenda featured the launch of the Sharjah Child Friendly School and Nurseries toolkit by the Sharjah Child Friendly Office
• Experts share their thinking behind RewirEd Provocations: A powerful narrative tool to reframe challenges into opportunities in education
• Various sessions shed light on creativity and innovation through music, arts and sports as well as girls’ empowerment

The second day of the RewirEd Summit, that was held under the theme of “Innovation in Education”, lined up another group of high-level speakers who shared their experiences of various approaches to drive unique and fresh solutions that have the potential to reshape the future of education.

The day started off with a High-Level Opening Panel on “Why Do We Need to Innovate in Education and What Does it Take? As part of this session, H.E. Liina Kersna, Minister of Education, Estonia said: “We need a mind-set change of the whole school community. Estonia has a strong can-do attitude and we have several approaches to educate, we call it a personalised approach to learning and teaching.”

On his side, H.E. Minister Dr. Dipu Moni M.P, Bangladesh said: “Now digital technology is used by everyone – in rural communities and in cities. Technology is changing fast and this is a challenge for us from a resource perspective. Technology was an enabler during the pandemic, as we could switch to remote learning in a matter of days. We tried classrooms through TV, online and through FM radios. We must not lose focus on where we want to go.”

UNESCO’s ‘Reimagining our Futures Together’ Publication

A High-Level panel titled “Reimagining Our Futures Together: UNESCO’s flagship publication on the futures of education”, saw the participation of Sahle-Work Zewde, President, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO; Arjun, among others. This session shared messages and recommendations from UNESCO’s newly released publication ‘Reimagining our Futures Together’. Two years in the making, the publication proposes ideas to remake education towards 2050.

Five promising innovations in Africa unveiled

The “Innovating Education in Africa Pitch” saw five of Africa’s most promising education innovators put forward their ideas to a highly experienced panel of judges. The awardees will see their innovations implemented as pilot projects in African countries. The winners are Rudolph Ampofo (USD 100,000) fromGhana, Elijah Lubala (USD 70,000) from the Democratic Republic of The Congo and Samson Wambuzi, (USD 40,000) from Uganda.

Education’s crucial role in combating the climate crises

The same day also featured a High-Level Panel titled “Education & Climate Change: Education and Its Crucial Role in Combating the Climate Crises”. Guided by the theme that while education is a powerful society-wide lever for climate action, it has not been prioritized as a solution, this session also discussed the broader context and challenge at hand, explored synergies and opportunities between education and climate change, and highlighted concrete routes of action by global leaders. The session saw the intervention of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco along with H.E. Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment and Chief Moomen,

Ghanaian poet, climate activist and creative entrepreneur. The education and climate change topic will will be further explored during COP 27 in Egypt.

Launch of the Sharjah Child Friendly School and Nurseries toolkit by the Sharjah Child Friendly Office

The Summit also witnessed the launch of the Sharjah Child Friendly School and Nurseries toolkit by the Sharjah Child Friendly Office. The standard has been guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child by implementing rights-based approaches to education and evidence pertaining to child development.

RewirEd Provocations: A powerful narrative tool to reframe challenges into opportunities

In a masterclass, Aman Merchant, Co-founder and Chief Provocateur of Radicle  and Indy Johar, Co-founder and Executive Director, Dark Matter Labs, shared their experiences and expertise in crafting the RewirEd Provocations, a series of co-designed ideas to help move current thinking from the usual to the unusual and address systemic, complex, and structural challenges impacting the education system. As part of the session, the two experts took participants through an open-ended thinking process of reimagining global education from a systems perspective. The high-level plenary ended with the Provocations Award Ceremony, where select number of experiments have been awarded seed funding to further develop and roll-out experiments.

Girls Education: How to move beyond patriarchal social and political structures”

Another high-level dialogue explored practical ways in which the education of girls and the empowerment of women can be furthered within societies dominated by deep patriarchal social and political structures, including cultural and religious ones, and what this means for furthering girls education in countries like Afghanistan, Northern Nigeria and many parts of the Sahel where religion is used as an excuse for keeping girls out of school.

Fostering creativity and innovation through music, arts and sport

The same day also included a session headed by opera singer Juan Diego Flores, on the “Importance of Music, Arts and Sport to Foster Creativity and Innovation”, which put forward the case for the centering of innovation in education in the teaching of arts, music and sport. This panel has passionately argued for centering innovation in education in the teaching of arts, music and sports. This session was marked by the presence of Dutch football legend Clarence Seedorf.

UAE’s new digital learning solutions

The “Accelerating Digital Transformation in Education: Promising Models for Digital Learning Innovation in the UAE” sessionhighlighted the potential of new and emerging models originating from the UAE, with experts providing a nuanced overview of the core components of successful digital learning solutions and the key conditions needed for innovation in this space to thrive, particularly in contexts left farthest behind in the digital divide globally.

Key speakers included President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masis, H.E. Dr. Dipu Moni, Minister of Education, Bangladesh, H.E. Dr. Majed bin Ali Al-Nuaimi, Minister of Education, Kingdom of Bahrain; H.E.Tarek Shawky, Minister of Education and technical Education Egypt, H.E. Minister Ayman Tawfiq Almoayyad, H.E. Colm Brophy, TD Minister of State for Overseas Development and Diaspora, Ireland; Minister of Youth and Sport Affairs, Bahrain, H.E. Dr. Maitha Shamsi, UAE Minister of State, H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence H.E. Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, United Arab Emirates, H.E. Shamma Al Mazrui, UAE Minister of State for Youth, H.E Abdalla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of KHDA, Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, H.E. Hamad Al Shaibani, Director General of The Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department (IACAD).