Over 48,000 teachers enrolled in UNESCO’s “Digital teacher” training

On 31 January, an online event jointly organized by UNESCO and the Ministry brought together key education actors, including more than 200 teachers.

Launched four months ago, UNESCO's "Digital teacher" training in Ukraine has already attracted more than 48,000 teachers. Through this online course, Ukrainian teachers are developing pedagogical skills in the use of digital tools for the delivery of quality distance education.

With 30% of students still studying in hybrid format and 25% doing so remotely, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the war has put additional pressure on teachers to adapt to digital learning environments.

To address these challenges, UNESCO partnered with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MESU) and Google.org to launch the "Digital Teacher" training course and an online Community of Practice, to strengthen teachers' knowledge and skills in the field of digital pedagogy while improving their working conditions and well-being.

To date, nearly 19,000 professional certificates have been awarded for completion of the course and more than 12,000 teachers have joined the Community of Practice, which provides a support network and facilitates the sharing of best practices and teaching methodologies.

Joint efforts to support learning continuity in Ukraine

On 31 January, an online event jointly organized by UNESCO and the Ministry brought together key education actors, including more than 200 teachers. Throughout the event, participants shared insights on how communities can improve teaching practices, enhance online and blended pedagogy, and ensure digital safety and teachers wellbeing.

Dmitry Zavgorodny, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, highlighted how educators face challenges in navigating the new tools, digital content, applications and platforms available to them, and praised the support for the digital skills development that is now available through the "Digital Teacher" course.

Svitlana Ivanisova, Deputy Director for Educational Process at Zaporizhzhia Gymnasium and a computer science teacher, highlighted the value of the Community of Practice in which "everyone has a unique opportunity to present themselves, their ideas and experience, to admire interesting forms and methods of creative work, extraordinary colleagues, to share, analyze and reflect."Self-paced learning with a focus on implementationUNESCO's "Digital Teacher" course content is also well received, with teachers noting that the materials are "interesting [and] relevant" for both younger and more experienced teachers and helpful in understanding how to keep students interested in learning at a distance. Feedback from teachers also highlighted the importance of practical tasks and advice throughout the course that supports them in implementing new methods in the classroom.

"What I liked most was that all the theoretical material was supported by examples and interactive exercises, which allows you to better understand and master new things," noted one teacher.

Learning at their own pace, teachers can complete the seven modules on topics such as assessment in the digital world, classroom management in digital pedagogy, and social and emotional learning. The course is designed to support educators of all levels and experiences in developing their competencies and provides lessons and resources that are useful for distance as well as mixed and face-to-face forms of education.

UNESCO, including through its Global Education Coalition, supports comprehensive teacher professional development in Ukraine, not only training teachers, but also building systematic capacity by strengthening Teacher Training Institutions.