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Russian Contribution to the Implementation of the UNESCO Strategy on Technological Innovation in Education was Noted on the First Day of the Forum

Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Executive Secretary of the National Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, spoke about the important role of the Russian experts in the digitalisation of education during the conference "Digital Transformation of Education – Realities of Today". The event was organised by St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the first day of the XII St. Petersburg International Educational Forum.

"The theme set by the organisers of the conference is fully in line with the UNESCO Strategy on Technological Innovation in Education, which was adopted for the period from 2021 to 2025 and is aimed at supporting human-oriented innovative approaches to the use of technology in education to ensure fair, inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all," said Grigory Ordzhonikidze. "The issue of the implementation of this strategy by UNESCO member states will be considered at the autumn session of the UNESCO Executive Board, which will begin in just 15 days. We will be ready to include the information about the conference into the speech of the Russian representative as an example of our domestic contribution to the implementation of this strategy."

According to the expert, digitalisation of education is not a tribute to the development of new technologies, but an imperative for the development of new knowledge and competencies, the development of methods and approaches to learning. "We welcome projects aimed at improving the skills of teachers in digital technologies and hope that over time there will be more such training programmes," the speaker noted.

He also thanked the teachers for their work during the pandemic: "Two years of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, two years of difficult and unusual work online showed us what a significant place digital technology occupies. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to school teachers and teachers of higher education, who continued their work during these difficult times and sought to organise the educational process without compromising the quality of education."

At the event, heads of educational institutions shared their experience of digital transformation, its effectiveness and prospects. Among the speakers were: Tatiana Radion, Vice-President of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Nella Pruss, Professor, National Coordinator of the UNESCO Associated Schools network of the Russian Federation, President of the University of Management TISBI; Maksim Pratusevich, Principal of the Presidential Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 239; Dmitry Spivak, Head of the UNESCO Department for Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, Specifics of Their Cultures and Interreligious DIalogue, Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after D.S.Likhachev; Nadia Spiridonova, First Deputy Head of the Administration of the Nevsky District of St. Petersburg, Honored worker of general education of the Russian Federation.