Every week, HEADlines brings you the latest news, stories and commentaries in education and healthcare. This week, get insights on the latest developments in education. image Virtual learning, its challenges and disparities For many K-12 educators and students, prolonged remote learning has taken a huge toll on their mental well-being, with many educators quitting the profession from stress and burn out. Under-resourced communities continue to struggle the most, with children finding difficulty accessing remote lessons and to keep up with learning in turn with reduced teacher supervision. For universities in the United States however, hybrid modes of learning look to be the future of higher education as many colleges report great flexibility and success in blended learning models. Even as many colleges reopen campuses, students and educators alike have taken to online learning with ease, while still appreciating the social aspect of being on campus physically. Fully virtual or hybrid learning needs to balance the social learning and development aspects of traditional classrooms with curriculum, especially for younger students who require greater contact and engagement with educators and peers to develop and grow. Unfortunately with existing disparities, this is an added challenge for some schools more than others. Education in the Spotlight The Conversation: How education reforms can support teachers around the world instead of undermining them In many countries, the professional status of teachers have declined. We look at how some leading education systems around the world initiate reforms that improve the quality of teachers’ work. Brookings: Collaborating to transform and improve education systems: A playbook for family-school engagement This playbook on family-school collaboration makes the case for why family engagement is essential for education systems transformation and why families and schools must have a shared understanding of what a good quality education looks like. The Straits Times: A Children’s Day wish for schools: Smaller class sizes There are many benefits to be had from smaller class sizes, from minimising the impact of Covid-19 to better mental health and the fostering of critical thinking skills. The Hechinger Report: From Google ads to NFL sponsorships: Colleges throw billions at marketing themselves to attract students Private schools in particular are acutely conscious of the demographics in the United States. They’re competing for students, and marketing is how they do that. NPR: Facebook’s own data is not as conclusive as you think about teens and mental health A psychologist reports that reliance on self-reporting — the teens’ own opinions — as a single indicator of harm is a problem, as teenagers are already primed by media coverage, and the disapproval of adults, to believe that social media is bad for them. Channel News Asia: Climate education still a ‘peripheral topic’ in Southeast Asia’s syllabus amid calls to make it compulsory While some countries have provisions for sustainability in their education plans, there are gaps, inconsistencies and inequities. Journal of Sustainability Education: Unthinking oil together: Developing a collaborative and transdisciplinary course to imagine a post-carbon future Climate change is not only a technological problem, but also a philosophical, cultural, and aesthetic problem—an existential crisis of thinking, or perhaps unthinking.