 Distinguished colleagues, thank you for the invitation to be part of DETA 2021. This is my first virtual DETA conference and I hope it will be the last because when we meet again, the next time, I hope it will be in person and in some part of our beautiful Africa. My topic today is reimagining teacher education for a post-pandemic future, which I have prepared with my colleague, Dr. Betiyo Gangi, who leads our work in teacher education. But first, a word about the Commonwealth of Learning. As you know, CALL is an intergovernmental organization that works in 54 Commonwealth member states, 19 of which are in Africa. Our mission is to help Commonwealth member states and the institutions use distance learning and technologies for expanding access to education and training. In this presentation, I will begin by outlining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers and highlight examples of how different countries responded to the crisis. I will then share some of the projects that CALL initiated during this period and finally I will conclude with what lessons we can draw from the pandemic to reimagine teacher education. As we all know, the pandemic disrupted the entire education system at all levels with lockdowns and closures that affected over 95% of the learners worldwide. There was already a huge teacher deficit globally and in sub-Saharan Africa, today we know that 70% countries face shortages at the primary level and 90% at the secondary level. We also know that more than 250 million children were not attending school in sub-Saharan Africa due to the pandemic. And over 60% students were excluded from online learning with huge dropout rates. Even before the pandemic, there was a learning crisis where many children were going to school but not achieving the required learning outcomes. Half the 10-year-olds in low and middle-income countries were unable to understand a simple written sentence. This learning crisis has been further exacerbated by the so-called learning loss with school closures and lockdowns. Children in low and middle-income countries lost nearly four months of schooling as compared to one-and-a-half months in high-income countries. So how will the children catch up? In India, when remedial classes were provided for 50 days, the number of children who could read a paragraph went up from 15% to 48%. This is quite substantial. When there was an earthquake in Pakistan and schools had to be closed for three months, the children fell behind by one-and-a-half years as teachers went ahead with the business-as-usual approach instead of offering remedial classes. Now that we are talking about learning loss, is it really a learning loss? It is true that learning was indeed lost as the curriculum could not be covered because of the disruptions. But as some suggest, the term learning loss introduces a deficit mindset that demotivates the learners and does not appreciate the effort that the teachers put in. But amidst this learning loss was what I call a learning gain, where over and above the curriculum, both teachers and learners learned many new things. For example, they learned to be resilient, managed their time better, acquired basic computer skills to learn, and collaborated on various social media platforms. All these are relevant skills that will help students to catch up. Teachers who acquired new skills in Côte d'Ivoire, teachers who had never done this before produced digital courses. Teachers in Mali assigned homework through WhatsApp. In Cameroon, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa, teachers joined hands to find collective solutions. Teachers' associations too played a very constructive role in organizing webinars and online training. How did the countries respond to the challenges? During the pandemic, we found that the greatest challenge related to digital infrastructure which meant lack of access to devices, connectivity, electricity. Teachers were not prepared for the sudden transition to online learning. And existing inequalities were further exacerbated. In a survey on the impact of COVID-19 on education in Africa, lack of technology was cited as the biggest barrier, especially in rural areas. Study and radio sustained learners at the primary school level, while online learning proved most important for secondary learners. Educators reported not receiving any financial support for technology tools. And in Sub-Saharan Africa, most teachers lacked the digital skills needed to offer quality distance learning. Now this is not restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa, it was an experience globally where data from the rich OECD countries indicates that only 60% of teachers had some training in ICTs. The vulnerable as we know are most impacted in crisis situations and it is estimated that the number of school dropouts will increase with 11 million girls not likely to return. A study in the Netherlands shows that there was a learning loss of about 3%ile points and learners from less educated homes were more prone to learning loss. So what kind of teacher training is needed to build back better? Teachers must be digitally fluent to facilitate learning which is engaging and caters to the diverse needs of students either online or in schools that are safe and inclusive. Parents and siblings emerged as key contributors to learning during the pandemic. How can we make them an integral part of the learning ecosystem? Let me share some examples of how my organization the Commonwealth of Learning responded. The first priority was to build the capacity of teachers in ICT integration, mobile learning, cyber security etc. through the use of massive open online courses or MOOCs. The second was to provide access to quality content. In partnership with OER Foundation at the Otago Polytechnique in New Zealand, KOL launched OER for COVID which attracted participants from 89 countries. The survey conducted found that participants did not simply want access to OER repositories or general capacity building in OER but rather sought urgent help with curated content aligned to their curriculum. For low bandwidth contexts in the Pacific, KOL developed a video on demand service using OER in STEM subjects aligned to the curriculum of Fiji, Nauru and Samoa. In the Gambia, KOL supported the implementation of a school-based teacher development model that uses a range of technologies to support pedagogical practice for improved learning outcomes. A toolkit for school-based teacher development was deployed in 20 basic and senior secondary schools where teachers can also download shareable audio and video resources. Working closely with the Open University in the UK, KOL supported teacher educators from the Kenya Institute of Special Education to develop resource materials for inclusive education. These have been implemented in 20 schools in Kenya and these resources are available for online access as well as shareable videos and printable downloads. KOL and the Open University UK developed and offered two MOOCs, one on inclusive teaching and learning and the second on creating an inclusive school which attracted over 900 participants, many from Africa. In Sierra Leone, KOL is supporting capacity building in resource digitization and learner support for the distance teacher education program at Freetown Teachers Training College. The institution is able to reach in-service teachers in different parts of the country using both online tools and shareable podcasts on WhatsApp. KOL is supporting the National Teachers Institute Nigeria towards re-skilling teacher educators and teachers in OER development for learning recovery in science, mathematics, English and social studies. Now all these are OER so if you need the material please take it. KOL has launched a project on parental learning for uninterrupted schooling in Ghana to promote parent-teacher community engagement and this is being done in northern Ghana areas with little or no access to technology. The needs assessment study shows that irrespective of literacy levels, parents are very keen to make use of the efforts to enhance their ability to support children with their learning. In a related project called Partnered with the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning in Hamburg to offer a course on planning a family and intergenerational literacy and learning program and this is meant for adult educators and teacher educators. Now these examples give you an idea of KOL services and resources that you can draw upon. So in conclusion let us look at six issues that emerged during the pandemic and how we can learn from this experience to reimagine teacher education. First we have seen that purely online options don't work for everyone. The future will be a blend of online and in-person approaches using a range of technologies that are affordable, accessible and available. Second as the pandemic forces governments to cut back on resource allocations we will need to look for cost-effective solutions to bring quality learning content for everyone. Mainstreaming OER by building the capacities of teachers and preparing learners on how to find use and share OER can be another way forward for access to quality content. Third we have seen a huge rise in self-directed learning during the pandemic and this is very evident from the phenomenal increase in MOOC enrollments during this time. We can build on these foundations to promote lifelong learning for teachers. Fourth formal assessments and proctoring systems suffered major setbacks during the pandemic. How can we learn from the innovative approaches and build flexible models that make assessments more authentic? Credentialing and recognition strategies will also need to change. Fifth the pandemic has highlighted the critical need for learner support not just for academic matters but also for general well-being and mental health. Parents and siblings became a critical resource in supporting learning. How can we develop an ecosystem of learner-teacher-parent to support success and sustainability? Sixth in order to address the growing inequalities we need a targeted approach to address the needs of the last person in the queue and these last persons are usually women girls those in remote regions and persons with disabilities. So when we look at our common future we know that the teacher is central to it. Access to technology will be key and we can only achieve our objectives through partnerships and collaboration. So on that note let me thank you for your kind attention and wish you a very successful conference. Stay safe, stay cheerful.