The Role Of Resilience In Strengthening Education

At the end of last year, the European Commission presented an education report for 2021, zooming in on wellbeing in education, along with a bigger picture of how Member States will use the Recovery and Resilience Facility, necessary for adapting and strengthening education systems in 2022 and beyond.

It’s great to see this initiative implemented into education. I’ve spoken at length about the critical importance of city resilience ahead of any challenges, a major example being the ongoing pandemic, and I believe it’s essential to translate this principle into how we form and adapt both current and future generations.

Romania as a country has seen its education system hit hard by the pandemic, presenting a major challenge for both teachers and students who, overnight, needed to adapt to a fully online system, and later a hybrid one, which failed to provide much needed stability. Studies have shown how students have been heavily impacted by this, as well as the teaching staff, who had to embrace a new way of teaching, often lacking the appropriate tools and a solid system to do so.

Part of the Commission's focus over the last few years has been on wellbeing in education. Along with the Recovery and Resilience Facility, these two combined missions can create a sustainable, long-term foundation to support how societies respond to challenges. This can’t be just about how cities respond and rebuild in particular circumstances, but also about how the community becomes part of that adaptation strategy, doing so in a healthy manner. By focusing on reforming just economies and certain sustainability sectors, we risk ignoring the most important sector of any society: its people.

Moreover, we must understand that when we are shaping the cities of the future, we’re also building better communities for current and future generations - and the latter are key in creating a strong, lasting foundation.