Education Solutions in a Global Crisis

As the pandemic continues to impact lives and economies across the globe, aspiring and current entrepreneurs are working to conceptualize and implement solutions that combat the effects of the virus. The solutions range from providing relief to hospitals, PPE for medical professionals, chatbots for local governments to relay COVID-19 information, tools for digital education, and so on.

Some entrepreneurs already have the capacity to look for solutions with their own resources, such as brewers in Australia and Canada repurposing their distilleries to produce hand sanitizer. These people and their businesses are able to implement their solutions quickly and on a much wider scale. But for smaller business and independent and/or aspiring entrepreneurs, they need a bigger platform to collaborate with others on.

Unintended consequences of digital learning

The healthcare system isn’t the only system facing immense pressure and drastic changes. Education systems globally have had to cancel in-person classes because it cannot accommodate social distancing, which has created a number of problems. Children who depend on the food their school provides no longer have that resource, unless their schools have the resources to do food drive-thrus. Children with special needs who receive therapy in their classes are now seeing their therapists less frequently. Parents who need childcare as they work during the day now have to balance working from home and helping their children with online school.

Online school is especially a challenge, not only because parents might not be well-equipped to help their children with schoolwork, but not everyone has access to technology or an internet connection. There are many countries that already don’t have the adequate infrastructure to adapt their education systems digitally, let alone provide quality education to their students (more than half of the schools in sub-Saharan Africa face an overwhelming disadvantage in this regard).

SDG 4: Quality Education

Before talking about the many solutions people have come up with to mitigate the challenges of digital education, it is important to spread awareness about the pandemic’s effects on those that don’t even have access to quality education in the first place. According to the UN, over 262 million children and adolescents do not attend school. In fact, 1 out of 5 children between 6 and 17 years old don’t attend school. As many children in economically developed countries find themselves out of school due to a lack of technology in their homes, those already out of school, especially girls, will be put in a much more vulnerable position during and after the pandemic.

It may be grim to talk about the state of education across the world because, in many ways, it is. But as entrepreneurs, it is important to be aware of these issues, because an educated society is important to developing a sustainable world. It is vital and necessary that there are entrepreneurs and businesses whose pandemic solutions address the issues within education systems.

Technology as a tool for learning

Many schools have been shut down in response to COVID-19, as they are not able to accommodate social distancing guidelines. Schools in some countries are developing plans to open up soon, while some have shut down for the rest of the year. For parents who have a higher level of education or even experience in homeschooling, this transition to helping their children with digital learning hasn’t been super difficult. But not all parents have the freedom to fully be a part of their children’s education, so entrepreneurs and other businesses have come together to create free educational materials that families can use.

Estonia is one country whose entrepreneurs have come together to reach these goals. CEO Birgit Lao of Innove, a company that works to promote competency in education amongst education professionals, said that “Technology is often seen as a tool for learning and teaching”, and so her company partnered with Estonia’s education ministry and other Estonian startups to create Education Nation. The project provides over 40 learning solutions from Nordic countries for free and available online, where anyone in the world can access them. They also provide live webinars for parents on how to organize distance learning, with a Q&A component. The webinars are uploaded on YouTube for those who can’t “attend”.

Each SDG has targets, which are individual points that provide more specific details on what the SDG wants to achieve. For SDG 4, the first one is focused on ensuring that all children complete a free primary and secondary education, as it is those students who are most affected by the school shutdowns. Regardless of a pandemic, it is important that education and education resources, like Education Nation, are free or as affordable as possible. It is not just a matter of equitable access, but because it advances our progress into a sustainable world.

Do you work with a project that promotes Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)? Join the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition or take advantage of our free training on entrepreneurship to spread entrepreneurial education among teachers and students in your community.

48 hours, 14 time zones

Estonia is a good example for entrepreneurial responses to this crisis. Their government has launched online hackathons, like Hack the Crisis, which partnered with Garage48 and Accelerate Estonia and other startups to offer technological solutions for the crisis, as well as solutions for when the pandemic is over. Hackathons are events, usually in person, where people get together to come up with solutions to challenges in just hours. Estonia held theirs for 48 hours, and over 1,000 people across 14 time zones participated in the event, producing projects with some already online, one of which being Share Force One. The platform and its partnership with the Estonian Unemployment insurance fund connects workforce employers who need more people in their workforce, or need opportunities for their employees who are out of work.

Estonia has more hackathons planned for the future, but they are not the only country that has hosted one. The German government hosted one in March that delivered more than 800 projects, and had 42,869 participants. The hackathon, #WirVsVirus, was supported by organizations such as Code for Germany, and the Minister of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, was its patron. Selected projects will receive government funding, and some are already starting to go online as prototypes, like a symptom tracker where suspected cases can be closely monitored.

Estonia clearly started a movement for hackathons in Europe, as they inspired the Finnish government to host one as well. Hack the Crisis Finland produced over 300 projects in 48 hours, with a jury that decided the top 5 teams. One of the top 5 is the Kauko App, An all-in-one education app, Kauko aims to help make remote learning easier for teachers, students, and parents. It is designed to give teachers more options with assignments, like accessing a data bank of assignments others have made. For kids, it will teach them how to use smartphones and other technology, as well as encourage them to be responsible for studying - for parents, they’ll have access to a calendar of their child’s assignments.

Issues that still need attention

So far, these hackathons in Europe haven’t made much of a mention about incorporating different languages. Many migrants across the globe struggle to access education in their language or one they understand. This is especially true in Europe, as there has been a rise in refugees and asylum seekers arriving in European countries. Projects may have language options, but so far, there haven’t been any from these hackathons that focus on addressing this barrier that is further exacerbated by the pandemic.

Education as a global effort

Hackathons have become very popular in Europe and other countries. Because they can easily be held online, they pose no risk of the virus to participants, and it allows anyone with a computer to participate. Even if participants are beginners in their field, their ideas and contributions still make an important impact on the search for solutions to the pandemic. Most hackathons also allow for professionals to sign up to be project mentors, which is not only good for helping to produce innovative projects but also their mentorship helps those beginner participants.

Many governments are hosting their own hackathons. If you are interested in participating in one, you can see if there is one being launched by your government. Additionally, since many of the hackathons allow for international participants, you can participate in those as well.

If you have children, how have the shutdowns changed your daily home life?
Have you ever participated in a hackathon? If so, what was your experience?