The Government of Japan and UNESCO sign agreement to support the Ministry of Education’s TV channel

The agreement to commence the project “Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on Education through distance learning in Iraq” (about 600,000 USD) was exchanged between Mr. NAKAGAWA Shu, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in Iraq, and UNESCO Senior Project Officer, Sae Osawa, on Thursday 4th of March 2021.

The project is for UNESCO to continue its support to the Ministry of Education (MoE) in delivering distance learning through its Education TV channel that aims to reach more than 6.3 million primary school children and other children who do not have access to education throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis and the closure of schools since the end of February 2020, UNESCO is building upon its previous assistance to the MoE’s TV channel, by supporting the production of television-based lectures for all subjects for grades 1-6 and the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) through this project.

Japan has long been a valued donor to UNESCO in Iraq. In 2019, the Government of Japan supported the project “Voices of the children of Old Mosul: the rehabilitation and management of primary schools in historic urban context emerging from conflict”, and in 2020 the project “Job creation for youth in Mosul – a centre of vocational excellence in construction skills supporting labour market outcomes”.