Context: Called E9 initiative, the consultation is the 'first of a three-phased process to co-create an initiative on digital learning and skills, targeting marginalised children and youth, especially girls'
Key Points

• Nine countries including India, China and Brazil will explore possibility of co-creating and scaling up digital learning to achieve UN sustainable goal on quality education.
• It is spearheaded by the United Nations with nine countries, namely Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.
• The initiative aims to accelerate recovery and advance the Sustainable Development Goal 4 agenda by driving rapid change in education systems."

Reason

• These countries are among the world’s most populous (4.1 of 7.9 billion) with large youth populations (1.6 billion by 2030) and with a high potential demographic dividend in low and low middle-income countries.
• Most learners in the nine countries still face disruption to learning either fully or partially and 11.3 million are at risk of not returning to education institutions.

The initiative will focus on

• Expanding access to digital learning solutions that build a range of skills for all children and youth and ensures that teachers, parents and caregivers can offer the scaffolding that children need to learn.
• Connecting schools, every child and every youth to the internet.
• Providing children and youth with a range of devices (mobile, laptop, desktop) to access learning.
• Ensuring that content and data are affordable for students, teachers and schools.
• Investing in teacher training and scaling innovative practices to enable digital learning.
• Addressing the barriers facing girls and young women to digital access, including social norms, online safety and privacy, skills and leadership to close the gender digital divides. 
• Investing in reskilling and up-skilling of youth to enable the school to work and life transition.
• Engaging youth to achieve the ambition for digital learning and ensuring its relevance and protecting privacy and promoting safety.

The goal is ambitious: closing the digital divide means connecting every child and youth – some 3.5 billion by 2030 – to digital solutions that can offer personalized and relevant learning.