7,600
monitors and computers distributed in Dallas, Chicago and Houston
Efforts such as this help improve lives and bridge the pernicious digital divide that affect the most underserved communities
Covid-19 response
With so many students impacted by the COVID-19 school closures, an important and urgent part of our mission was to help keep them connected to instruction.
Alex Cho, President of Personal Systems at HP
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented crisis to global education. Worldwide school closures due to the pandemic impacted 1.6 billion children — that’s 94 percent of children around the world. The accompanying loss of learning is estimated to cost $17 trillion in lifetime earnings for today’s students.
The Global Business Coalition for Education has been at the forefront of the response to ensure that all students can both learn remotely and return to the classroom as soon as possible. In this critical work, we have paid special attention to the many vulnerable students from marginalized communities who were too often being left behind before the pandemic and who have been further disproportionately impacted by Covid education disruption as a result of the digital divide and economic and family hardships.
With over 20 of our business partners, we made more than 100 tools and resources available to students, educators, and parents worldwide. The life-changing action of our partners include:
HP partnered with Comp-U-Dopt to deploy technology to underserved communities in the United States that couldn’t access broadband and continue virtual schooling.
Britannica Digital Learning has made curriculum-aligned, distance-learning resources available for free to schools grappling with COVID-19-related closures. LaunchPacks supports virtual learning and independent study across topics covered in the K-12 science and social studies curricula.
Canva is offering teachers and students free access to learning tools and templates via its distance education platform.
A full list of our partners featured tools and resources can be found here:
The impact
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Business Coalition for Education has worked hand-in-hand with our partners and educators in communities across the world to respond to this unprecedented disruption of the global education system. Educators have been at the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, working to minimize the learning, social, and health impacts and to close the gap so that every child can receive a quality education.
Learn about how to join the coalition.