United Nations Children’s Fund
Global Education Inequalities and Technology Disparities during COVID-19
As global technology reliance continues to grow, the education gap widens. Those living in urban, technological supercentres are at the heart of innovation, inspiration, and modernisation, whereas the students who are living in rural areas tend to have an education marked by decades-old teaching styles, lack of advancements in curriculum, and simply less technological and innovative opportunities.9
The case studies we are recommending include examining the education and technology policies in High-Income Countries (HICs), Middle-Income Countries (MICs), and Low-Income Countries (LICs). We shall divide the countries into a Higher Income group of HICs and upper MICs, and a Lower Income group of lower MICs and LICs. This way, it becomes easier to find solutions that will work for both types of countries, and also decide as a committee what solutions can have a sweeping global impact.
The first case study will focus on analysing education and technology inequalities in Higher Income Nations including the United States, the United Kingdom and China. These nations have clear education gaps between rural and urban communities, with many urban centres providing additional resources such as innovation labs, and sometimes access to university resources, whereas the rural students are forced to come up with creative ways to overcome the lack of technology: including lack of Wi-Fi, internet, and cable in many rural communities.10
The second case study will explore education and technology inequalities in Lower Income Nations including Syria and Rwanda. Lower Income nations have more obstacles to overcome in regards to increasing access to education and technology as many of the students in these nations have not only limited access to technology, but they also lack access to a qualified teacher, proper educational funding from the government, physical classrooms, learning materials and resources, gender barriers, political unrest and violence, and many students are in extreme poverty, exacerbating all of the aforementioned issues.
Committee discussions and resolutions should focus on potential solutions for educational disparities around the world. Delegates should contemplate the impact that a lack of technological resources has had on students living in rural versus urban areas, and those in lower income versus higher income nations. There should be discussions on how COVID-19 has exacerbated these educational disparities and technological inequalities around the world given the shift from in-person learning to online learning. Resolutions should deal mainly with addressing the failures of earlier policies and systems surrounding technology barriers for rural students and methods of improving the global educational divide, as well as addressing the aftermath COVID-19 and how that will affect the resolutions presented.
Director’s Letter
Dear delegates,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Harvard National Model United Nations 2022! My name is Alyvia Bruce and I am extremely excited to meet each and every one of you as your Director of the UNICEF Committee, the United Nations Children’s Fund. I hope that your experience at the conference this year will allow you all to grow not only as delegates but also as individuals.
I am from Charlotte, Michigan (a very small, rural town), and I am a sophomore at Harvard. I study Government, Education, and Spanish and I am the Under-Secretary General for Regional Bodies for HMUN 2022 and involved with many different aspects of Harvard’s Model UN program. Outside of MUN, I volunteer with a mentorship group for young girls in the Boston/Cambridge area, and I also am involved in the Harvard Political Review and Harvard Model Congress. In my free time, I can be found drinking coffee and online shopping or playing with my Cavachon puppy, Czarina.
At conference, I expect our committee discussions and resolutions to focus on educational disparities between rural and urban cities around the world. You should contemplate the impact that a lack of technological resources has had on students around the world. I also anticipate discussion on how COVID-19 has exacerbated these educational disparities and technological inequalities in high-income countries (HICs versus low-income countries (LICs) around the world given the shift from in-person learning to online learning, and how will students with fewer opportunities recover from this complete lack of education structure.
Education is a topic that has always been near-and-dear to my heart. As a first-generation college student from an area that is extremely impoverished and lacks many technological and educational resources, I have been motivated to push for educational policy changes. I really would like to raise awareness to these less discussed educational issues facing millions of children around the world, and inspire you to take our discussions, debates, and resolutions and push for positive educational change in your hometowns. I hope that your experience at conference gives you a new appreciation for how important it is to create change, taking into account both short and long-term solutions. I am so excited to meet you all in-person at conference, and I encourage you to contact me beforehand with any questions you may have (or even just to introduce yourself)!
Sincerely,
Alyvia R. Bruce
Director, United Nations Children’s Fund Harvard National Model United Nations 2022