Microsoft : Ensuring equitable education and access in a post-pandemic world

Education leaders today face major challenges and opportunities, from ensuring every student has the support to graduate successfully, to balancing budgets and driving transformation to evolve their systems to be the greatest 21st century education institutions. While on this journey, one of the most important requirements for all leaders is to ensure learning is truly accessible and equitable for all students.

At Microsoft, we've been working with education systems around the world who are developing strategies to create more equitable and accessible learning systems. Innovative technologies are transforming all sectors, allowing us to reinvent what is possible, and create new opportunities and access for people to connect and collaborate. For education, these innovations and advancements are offering new opportunities for how we can rethink, personalize, and improve our education systems to better support all learners.

As part of this work, we recently had the opportunity to interview leaders from around the globe and co-author a white paper with Education World Forum(EWF)-the world's largest gathering of education and skills ministers-to assist the planning of EWF in January 2022. The resources were created to provide you with insights and perspective from education industry leaders on the topic of equitable education in a post-pandemic world, and how systems are focusing on effective learning opportunities for every student. You can access these on our Virtual Education Transformation Series webpage, which include:

• The whitepaper: 'Equitable education in a post-pandemic world: Effective learning for every student,' co-authored with Education World Forum.
• The on-demand video series featuring education leaders from around the globe:
  • How the COVID pandemic influenced equity in education: Gavin Dykes, Program Director, Education World Forum, United Kingdom; Larry Nelson, Asia Regional Business Leader, General Manager, Education; and Alexa Joyce, EMEA Director of Education Transformation and Skills
  • Inclusive education with Minecraft: Education Edition: Ayman Ahmad Alattas, Program Director, Edutainment, Saudi Arabia and Alexa Joyce, EMEA Director of Education Transformation and Skills, Microsoft
  • Reinventing education statewide: Jorge Enrique Hernandez, Guanajuato MoE, Mexico and Dina Ghobashy, Business Strategy Leader, K-12 School Leadership and Programs, Microsoft
  • Equity and skills: Life, learning, and employment: Michael Prayer, Superintendent New York DOE Brooklyn, USA and Mark Sparvell, Director, Education Marketing, Microsoft
  • Well-being and analytics: Positive education approaches to scale: Shannon Stevens, Wellbeing Consultant, CEWA, Australia and Mark Sparvell, Director, Education Marketing, Microsoft
  • Enabling inclusive education in developing countries: Alex Twinomugisha, Senior Education Technology Specialist, World Bank and Alexa Joyce, EMEA Director of Education Transformation and Skills, Microsoft
  • Empower all students with reading literacy: Mike Tholfsen, Principal Product Manager, Education, Microsoft

I invite you to discover these resources and explore the many additional tools, like the Microsoft Education Transformation Framework, designed to support you: our education systems leaders working to address how we best move forward. I also encourage you to explore and consider joining the Microsoft Leaders of Digital Transformation Program, designed to connect education leaders with a network of leaders working together on key challenges they are facing.

Together, we are preparing for a post-pandemic world where every student can be more successful and develop the skills they need for the future. I, along with our teams around the world, look forward to hearing from you about how we can work together and support your transformation journey-with equity and access at the heart of what we're improving for our students.