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Source: Getty

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Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

Protecting and Transforming Education for Shared Futures and Common Humanity

School closures have highlighted the digital gap between those who can access remote learning and those without the basic means to do so.

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By Maha Yahya
Published on May 13, 2020

Source: International Commission on the Futures of Education

Covid-19 has brought existing structures of inequality into sharp focus. This is not an issue of a global North and underdeveloped South. Rather it is within regions and countries and between classes of citizens. Access to urgent healthcare within countries between resource rich and resource poor regions is just the tip of the iceberg. School closures have highlighted the digital gap between those who can access remote learning and those without the basic means to do so. And pandemic related social distancing measures are impossible to implement for the 2 billion informal workers and 70 million refugees and internally displaced people around the world who have no basic social protection (with no health or unemployment benefits). For them the choice is to die of Corona or die of hunger.

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This article was originally published on UNESCO's Digital Library.

About the Author

Maha Yahya

Director, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

Maha Yahya is director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where her research focuses on citizenship, pluralism, and social justice in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings.

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Maha Yahya
Director, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Maha Yahya
EconomyEducationMiddle EastNorth Africa

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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