The EBU is delighted to join the UNESCO Global Education Coalition, an initiative that aims to facilitate distance learning for the millions of children and young people around the world affected by COVID-19 school closures. 

Radio and television are still the most inclusive platforms for educating students at home, as many households worldwide do not have access to the Internet or a computer.

EBU Director General Noel Curran said: “Education is a core value for public service media, and we’ve seen that most recently during the COVID-19 crisis with the huge range of educational output that our Members provided.

“We know that it’s a core value for UNESCO, so we look forward to being a bridge between UNESCO and our Members, and allowing their expertise, their knowledge, to be shared and accessed by others.”

Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education said: “For millions of students without access to online learning platforms, radio and television is an educational lifeline in this unprecedented period of school closures. The higher the quality of educational broadcasting programmes, the greater the impact on learning.

"The EBU is bringing a wealth of expertise and experience to help countries develop quality audiovisual contents for distance learning. I welcome this invaluable contribution to UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition. This is the kind of partnership we need to ensure learning continuity now and build more resilient and inclusive education systems in the future.”

The EBU and UNESCO are organizing a series of online workshops on educational broadcasting. Experts from our Membership discuss how they successfully set up educational programmes for television, radio and online platforms in a very short timeframe. They share their experiences working with Ministries of Education and teachers on curriculum, as well as how they have been able to make programmes interesting for young audiences.

Workshops have already been held for French and English-speaking audiences (now available to watch online here), with a high turn-out for each. Participants heard from EBU Members France Télévisions, RTBF, Deutsche Welle, NPO, Lithuanian National Radio and Television, and Georgian Public Broadcaster, as well as an expert from ABC Australia, in cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. 

The next webinar will be held in Spanish, organized with the help of EBU Member RTVE. Details to be published shortly.