Education 2.0: How the GCC’s academic landscape is moving forward

Education 2.0: How the GCC’s academic landscape is moving forward

Robust and future-driven education systems are a vital prelude to creating thriving economies. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, new education ecosystems manifested around the world disrupting traditional methods of disseminating and garnering knowledge. As classrooms morphed into video calls, students receded to postage-stamp size images, and face-to-face questions converted into digital ones, the breadth of academia seemingly shrunk to the size of a screen. “Education systems across the globe experienced an unprecedented impediment to learning as nearly 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries were affected by school closures,” an Alpen Capital report revealed. Across all countries, nearly 30 per cent of school days were lost between February 2020 and 2021, with schools operating at partial strength for 16 per cent of the year. Compared to the global average of 29 per cent, the ratio of school days lost was relatively higher in the GCC region as closures impacted nearly 50 per cent of school days in the year, it added. However, industry stakeholders responded effectively in the form of capacity building collaborations with service providers and technology-led solutions, enabling hundreds of thousands of students, teaching professionals and support staff to switch gears and adopt digital instructions.