Britannica provides digital resources to more than 18 million students across South and Central America amid COVID-19 school shutdowns
Company responds to global school closings with vital resources for remote learning worldwide; Argentina and Central American countries have access to Britannica's online platforms that deliver engaging, relevant content and save teachers time; Professional development for teachers is an integral part of Britannica's resource offering, as teachers learn new ways to deliver instruction; Current crisis is rife with opportunities to transform education, says Britannica
CHICAGO, May 7, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Education leaders across South America and Central America have partnered with Britannica Digital Learning to provide more than 18 million students with remote learning across El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Argentina during the coronavirus school shutdowns and beyond.
In these countries, every student and teacher now has access to three of Britannica's trusted resources, Britannica School, Britannica Escolar and Britannica ImageQuest. These resources offer over 120,000 articles in English and Spanish, article translations in over 80 languages, personalized learning tools, and multimedia content, including over 3.3 million rights-cleared images.
The partnerships with the ministries of education of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Argentina are part of Britannica's global response to the worldwide school closings and the need to accelerate the development and distribution of remote-learning resources and support, an area in which the company has focused its attention for years.
Ninety-one percent of students worldwide have had their schools close as a result of the pandemic, according to UNESCO. They need quality learning from home, yet there are wide variations from place to place in access to appropriate content. Influencing factors include Internet connectivity, teacher readiness for online instruction and appropriate resources to meet the challenges that come with the sudden shift from classroom to home.
To help schools everywhere meet these challenges, Britannica is making digital resources, custom solutions and expert-led professional development for educators available worldwide with the aim of helping educators respond effectively to the new challenges.
The current situation has created both risks and opportunities for the future of education, according to Karthik Krishnan, global CEO of the Britannica Group. He added, "Schools, educators and their partners now have a strong incentive to speed up the implementation of effective remote-learning models and deliver differentiated instruction, address the learning gap and provide content to students in engaging formats. It's equally important to help educators make this transition, to keep them from becoming overwhelmed, to provide resources that save them time and the kind of expert-led professional development they'll need for the journey ahead.
"Educators globally are facing big challenges, and they're asked to adapt and transform quicker than ever before," said Krishnan. "We have to enable teachers and ensure that they aren't overwhelmed. We also need to ensure that students feel that a number of organizations and people are rallying to secure their futures and see to it that education continues to offer an uninterrupted path to prosperity. The creative solutions, digital and offline, that we develop during this crisis can dramatically reduce the disparities of access and quality around the world. The new capabilities will complement classroom education when schools reopen and help us make significant progress on access and equity, thereby putting us on a better path to achieving one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – SDG 4."
Britannica is committed to enabling schools globally, collaborating to address the remote learning challenges and closing the learning gap. More information is available at https://education.britannica.co.uk/.
About Britannica Digital Learning
Our mission is simple: to inspire curiosity and the joy of learning. Future dreamers, leaders, and builders depend on educators every day to help them learn to examine their world more deeply. We partner with educators, school districts, ministries and media companies all around the world. Trusted in over 83 countries, translated into over 15 languages and used by more than 150 million students, we provide educators and learners with effective, enriching, and innovative tools, resources, and ideas to meet evolving teaching and learning needs. Britannica Digital Learning is a division of the Britannica Group, which is headquartered in Chicago. Information about North American products and services is at https://britannicalearn.com/.
SOURCE Britannica Group
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