The conference, hosted by the Varkey Foundation, took place across four of Dubai’s leading schools on 2 February 2026, bringing together global leaders and education experts alongside teachers and students from more than 50 countries. We thank all attendees for their participation, insights, and shared commitment to improving education worldwide.

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Schools represent the world’s most powerful social network, with the potential to connect 75 million teachers and 1.3 billion children globally. The conference launched 1 Million Schools, a new initiative to enable one million meaningful school-to-school connections over the next five years. Connecting even a fraction of the world’s schools—through models such as peer-to-peer networks and knowledge-sharing partnerships—can unlock unprecedented opportunities for underserved learners, particularly in countries facing high levels of learning poverty.

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Participants also explored how such connections could give schools the collective power to address some of the world’s most pressing global challenges. With just four years remaining to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4, attendees reflected on what the international community can learn from these initiatives, how they can be better supported, and what it would take to connect schools at an unprecedented global scale.

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