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On 23 April, with the facilitation of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, the UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office invited UNICEF, WHO and Save the Children to join an inter-agency online meeting with the Chinese Ministry of Education to discuss and exchange ideas about education responses to COVID-19 in China. Five different departments of the Ministry of Education participated in the meeting. Mr Qin Changwei, Secretary General of the National Commission for UNESCO and Dr. Marielza Oliveira, Director of the UNESCO Beijing Cluster Officer addressed the meeting with opening remarks.

With 1.5 billion students and 63 million teachers affected by school and university closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak globally, China has demonstrated solid commitment and determination in ensuring emergency responses and  innovative solutions with its massive “disrupted classes, undisrupted learning” actions. 

Both Mr Qin and Dr Oliveira stressed the importance of building the resilience of the education system in emergency response and highlighted the need to re-organize teaching and learning to maintain education continuity, equity and quality, while at the same time ensuring safety and health for all students and teachers both before and after the school re-opening. Both also pointed to the importance of strategic partnership and sharing of learning and resources both within and across countries. Mr Qin introduced the active actions China has taken to cooperate with UNESCO in responding to the pandemic, and proposed further collaboration with UNESCO and other UN agencies in China to develop a series of Handbooks on Education Response to COVID-19. Dr. Oliveira highlighted that current education responses to COVID-19 can also help inform our thinking about the future of education and the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) that guides UN collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of education.

Mr Fan Zemin from the Physical, Health and Arts Education Department of MOE shared updates on the school health-related work during the pandemic period. The MOE issued comprehensive guidelines for COVID-19 prevention and control to pre-schools, primary and middle schools as well as higher education institutions. Concrete measures have been taken to protect students’ eyesight during online learning. The management of food safety has also been strengthened through collaboration between MOE and other relevant government departments. Special measures have been put in place to prevent further transmission by imported infection cases, especially with the scaling up of school re-opening. Apart from these specific actions around COVID-19, the Department has developed an integrated health education syllabus throughout kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and university, which is expected to be released later this year as a sustainable solution to build school resilience and capacity to prevent and respond to any kind of health risks in the future. 

Ms Li Jing from the Department of Higher Education introduced success of online learning for higher education institutions since the COVID-19 outbreak. The Ministry of Education played a critical role in facilitating and coordinating the strategic partnerships with major universities and the enterprises to ensure the efficient delivery of on-line learning. So far over 41,000 free online education resources have been provided to colleges and universities through various online platforms. The Department encouraged development of tailored and localized solutions and innovative approaches to meet diverse needs, while ensuring quality of online learning through multi-stakeholder collaboration. Relevant research is on-going right now to generate evidence to inform the reform of higher education in distance learning modality in the post-pandemic period. In addition, China is already sharing its on-line resources and good practices, e.g. through the international versions of its higher education teaching platforms “iCourse” and “XuetangX”. China is also planning to host the World MOOC Conference.

Mr Ren Changshan from the Department of Science and Technology introduced the MOE work in strengthening the ICT deployment and implementation to support the “disrupted classes, undisrupted learning” actions during the crisis period, through collaboration with other line ministries in China to ensure network security and stability. The department has participated in UNESCO-organized webinars on behalf of MOE to share China’s experience. It collaborated with UNESCO  in mobilizing experts for developing two technical tools: the Handbook on Facilitating Flexible Learning During Educational Disruption: The Chinese Experience in Maintaining Undisrupted Learning in COVID-19 Outbreak, and the Guidance on Active Learning at Home during Educational Disruption: Promoting Student’s Self-regulation Skills in COVID-19 Outbreak.

Ms Jia Nan from the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, based on a written material provided by the Basic Education Department of MOE, shared the timely actions by the MOE in implementing the “disrupted classes, undisrupted learning” actions in response to COVID-19. The swift launch of the national primary and secondary school network cloud platform and the education television aerial classroom benefitted from collaboration between MOE and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as well as the State Administration of Radio and Television. The inter-ministerial coordination mechanism also included seven major domestic service providers. Special efforts were made to improve the network operation, so as to ensure a comprehensive coverage of online learning or TV learning, especially for the students in remote rural areas with limited network access. The Department implemented measures to enhance teacher capacity in online teaching and provide students with essential life skills to maintain safety and health in the face of COVID-19.

Ms Tian Xiaoqin from the National Textbook Department (National Textbook Committee Office) introduced the process of uploading textbooks to enable online teaching and learning during the school closure period. As of March 10, the total visits to the online electronic textbooks have reached 3.515 billion, and the total downloads reached 158 million. The free provision of electronic textbooks of primary and secondary education has received positive feedbacks by teachers, students and parents across the country.

Mr Sanaullah Panezai from UNICEF China introduced UNCEF’s work in providing psychosocial support to schoolchildren and their families. During the initial response phase, UNICEF sent out core messages to support younger children aged 3-6 through its daily “Morning Call” activity on social media platforms, and provided parenting tips on how to meet children’s psychosocial needs. During the recovery phase while children are starting to go back to schools, UNICEF is partnering with MOE on the Safe School Return campaign by disseminating informational materials to ensure healthy, safe and child-friendly school environment. Sanaullah Panezai also explained the Scale of UNICEF support to the Safe School Campaign that it is a nationwide campaign, aiming to reach all 614,000 schools and 235 million children in China, utilizing UNICEF and MoE digital channels for dissemination. Printed posters for Children, Parents, Teachers and School administrators have also been developed in partnership with MoE and will be distributed to all these schools. 

Ms Li Beisi from WHO China introduced their communication work in three phases to support public and school health. In the response phase, WHO provided timely epidemic updates and communicated protection measures including mental health tips for children. The messaging for resurgence prevention stressed importance of daily work and life precautions. In the rehabilitation and resilience-building stage, WHO stresses the importance of integrating health-sensitive policies in all sectors and suggests using the momentum to advocate for broader health policies, e.g. for tobacco control, sodium reduction and food labelling.  

Mr Robert Parua from the UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office introduced UNESCO’s work in response to COVID-19 at both the global, regional and national levels. UNESCO is continuously monitoring the global education response to COVID-19 and has established the Global Education Coalition for COVID-19 response to facilitate inclusive learning opportunities for children and youth during this period of sudden and unprecedented educational disruption. 91�鶹������Ʒ���� organized virtual ministerial dialogue on COVID-19, and weekly webinars to share practices, ideas and resources about country responses to school closures and other challenges stemming from the global health crisis. 

91�鶹������Ʒ���� released a series of issue notes to support and guide  governments in planning their response measures, and is providing direct technical assistance for some countries to quickly implement inclusive distance learning through a combination of high-tech, low-tech and no-tech approaches. 91�鶹������Ʒ���� been leading or co-leading several studies at global, regional or national levels to gather evidence that can inform programming and policy-making. These include the survey on COVID-19 and early childhood education workforce, the survey for TVET providers, policy-makers and social partners on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, and the survey on national education responses to COVID-19 school closures, etc. Most recently, UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP and World Bank issued the Framework for Reopening School to offer practical advice for national and local authorities on how to keep children safe when they return to school. 

Liu Ming from the Save the Children China Office introduced the organization’s support to kindergartens and primary schools through provision of prevention material kits and teaching resources, and highlighted the need for targeted support and regular school health education especially for rural and migrant children’s schools.  A research is being planned to have a better view of the school experiences in COVID-19 prevention and control coordination in China. 

The meeting participants appreciated the dialogue and agreed to have a functional and coordinated mechanism to facilitate continued collaboration between the relevant departments of MOE and UN agencies and development partners. As major outcomes of the Joint meeting, the participants from UN agencies and MOE as well as development partners have agreed to: 

1. Share on-going activities and actions related to education response COVID-19 pandemic in China；Consolidate and share globally China’s promising practices in “disrupted classes, undisrupted learning”, including online learning platforms, tools, e-learning resources and guidelines.   
2. Jointly support and build capacity of the China education sector in response to COVID-19 within UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, including improving school capacity to enhance students’ health literacy and school preparedness for any type of health risks and emergencies
3. Mobilize public-private and institutional partnerships to strengthen education system resilience and response to COVID-19.