In order to support institutions in advancing learning within families to mitigate the education crisis caused by COVID-19, COL and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) have announced an online course on planning family and intergenerational literacy and learning (FILL). The first edition of the course starts on 19 October 2020 and is free of charge.

Many countries around the world have recently moved towards implementing distance, technology-enabled and other forms of home-based learning. Learners who are unable to return to the classroom because of the pandemic are turning to parents, siblings, and other family members for support. Learning within families and across generations has, therefore, become key in this context.

This new online course is designed for a wide range of education professionals from civil society organisations, government institutions and non-governmental providers for literacy and early childhood education, as well as teacher education institutions.

COL’s Education Specialist: Teacher Education, Dr Betty Ogange said, “This course strengthens the capacity of various institutions to nurture the collaboration between the teacher, the parent/carer and other non-classroom actors in supporting the learning process, especially during this pandemic.”

This collaboration builds on COL’s expertise in open and distance and lifelong learning, and UIL’s long history of developing and promoting family and intergenerational literacy learning approaches.

Professionals interested in the current or future offers of the course are invited to send an email to uil-fill@unesco.org or teachered@colfinder.org. Participation of women professionals is highly encouraged.