Annually, Ghana and countries around the world celebrate International Day of Education on January 24 to advocate for inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all.

This year’s celebration was under the theme, ‘Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation’. The global event for the Day was celebrated along three main segments: learning heroes; innovations, and financing.

Education acts as a channel for reducing inequalities by giving people the ability to read, write and develop skills to be able to work towards economic and social development. This year’s International Day of Education was in the wake of the largest ever educational disruption: at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic where 1.6 billion students were affected by the closure of schools, universities and other learning institutions in 190 countries.

To mark the day, I joined colleagues of the UN Country Team in Ghana to the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School at Legon and the La Nkwantanang Cluster of Schools in Madina, all in the Greater Accra Region, to interact with the students and pupils. It was also an opportunity to engage with teachers and understand measures put in place to safeguard their health in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world’s 100 million teachers and educators are frontline workers and the most important actors in the educational recovery.  Partners must step up action to narrow the digital divide, extend connectivity and develop quality open educational resources to enable inclusive and equitable technology-supported learning.