During the UNESCO-Huawei International Forum on Digital Platforms and Skills for Teachers in Cairo, Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Education inaugurated the National Distance Learning Center for the Continuous Professional Development of Educators. This learning center is a product of UNESCO and Huawei's collaboration in the Technology-enabled Open Schools for All project, which has been running in Egypt, Ghana and Ethiopia since 2020 and will continue until 2023.
Dr. Reda Hegazy, Minister of Education and Technical Education, thanked UNESCO and Huawei for their support and for selecting Egypt as a partner in the Open Schools Project. He praised the achievements of the Open Schools Project in collaboration with the Professional Academy for Teachers and the UNESCO Cairo Office, highlighting its contributions to capacity building, teacher training, digital platforms and the establishment of the National Center for Distance Learning to enhance the skills of educators in Egypt.
The Technology-enabled Open Schools for All (TeOSS) project was also a focus of the forum. This initiative, in partnership with the ministries of education in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Ghana, includes testing and implementing digital education platforms, providing digital literacy training for teachers and students, formulating policy frameworks for digital education, and evaluating the project's effectiveness with a view to expanding TeOSS to other African countries.
In Egypt, for example, 300 teachers have already received digital skills training through the project, and the newly launched Learning Center will facilitate distance learning and improve digital literacy for 950,000 K-12 educators in underserved areas.
Sobhi Tawil, Director of the Future of Learning and Innovation Team at UNESCO, praised the collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Education and underscored Huawei's commitment to promoting open schools and enhancing digital learning skills since 2020. He noted that Egypt was an early adopter of the digital learning initiative and highlighted the importance of the National Center for Distance Education in driving digital transformation.
The TeOSS project aims to integrate online and offline learning to ensure educational continuity, even in crisis situations. The project is particularly relevant given the disruption to education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of students affected by school closures.
Huawei's involvement in this initiative is in line with its TECH4ALL initiative, which focuses on digital inclusion and sustainability. Within the education domain of TECH4ALL, Huawei is committed to developing technology-driven solutions to support the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to provide inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Joyce Liu, Director of Huawei's TECH4ALL Digital Inclusion Program Office, emphasized the importance of empowering educators with digital skills to address the challenges in Egypt and beyond, and strive for a more inclusive and sustainable digital world.
In addition to the launch of the learning center and the TeOSS project, the two-day forum explored best practices in digital platform development, educator skills, international resource sharing, and expanding collaboration in digital education. The event brought together government ministers, senior officials from Egypt, Ethiopia and Ghana, UNESCO and Huawei representatives, TeOSS partners and international experts.
