On 14 May, 2020, RCE Greater Western Sydney and RCE Srinagar, with support from UNU-IAS, held a webinar titled 'ESD Action in COVID-19 Era: Experiences of RCEs of the Asia Pacific Region'. The webinar was attended by over 100 people from across the Asia-Pacific, as well as other regions.

Seventeen RCEs from Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Philippines and the Republic of Korea made presentations, highlighting the impacts of the pandemic on education centres, the switch to online delivery modes, and consideration factors to take into account such as technology skills and access. However in the midst of these changes, it has opened up greater opportunities for collaboration, and the sharing of skills and knowledge, providing the time to reflect and develop new modalities. The range of communication tools and new ways of working were discussed, as were innovative solutions, such as virtual fieldwork.

The pandemic has provided opportunities to implement new learning methods, to rethink the skills and learning outcomes of educational programmes, and further highlighted the importance of valuing the skills within communities. 

Presentation slides from the webinar can be viewed here. A recording of the session will be made available soon. 

A second edition of this webinar will be held on 9 June, 2020. Further details are available here.

(Photo credit: RCE Greater Western Sydney)