Education in New Normal and Next Normal: Current and Future Developments

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the largest disruption to education systems in recent history. This unprecedented crisis has been a global wake-up call for stakeholders from different sectors to not only change and strengthen health and education systems in support of learning but also challenge the way we view education. Major issues arise and continue to undergo changes in the way we teach and learn, due to school closures only, such as educational inequalities, health threats, learning loss, and insufficient support for teachers and parents. Despite the current challenges, global and domestic communities have put in numerous efforts to provide measures for school reopening and the continuous delivery of education with an aim to meet the learning potential of all. With the range of reform efforts being made worldwide, there has never been a better time to ask what we have learned from the past and present and how we see the way forward. This article identifies the most salient challenges facing education, as well as areas of developments in various settings across the globe. Finally, the article turns our attention to the next wave of change in the educational landscape.