Virtual Teacher Summits

The Varkey Foundation has held a series of regional summits for our Global Teacher Prize Ambassadors (GTPAs) on coronavirus and the future of education. As a result of these summits over 100 Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize finalists from every continent made nine calls to action on governments around the world. These included providing reliable internet access for all and finding solutions to help the 706 million learners who lack internet access to continue learning while schools are shut. They also called on governments to rule out any cuts to education budgets and to review curricula when schools re-open so that no students are left behind as a result of a crisis that is exacerbating educational inequalities.

The series of summits culminated in TEACHERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! – a virtual summit to give thousands of teachers across the world a voice at the top table for the first time. This summit, which brought together not only our GTPAs but teachers from their wider communities, saw the launch of nine new teacher task forces (based on the nine calls to action) that will lend governments and international bodies the expertise and varied perspectives of teachers from every continent on key policies.

The summits and the calls to action have been covered by media across the world including TES in the UK, El Economista in Spain, Il Messaggero in Italy, the Daily Nation in Kenya, and All Africa.