UNESCO-UNICEF-ITU Charter for Public Digital Learning Platforms

Supporting shared principles for publicly governed digital learning systems

Connecting every school to the internet is a critical first step – but connectivity alone does not guarantee equitable and meaningful digital learning. Countries also need secure, interoperable and publicly governed digital systems that transform connectivity into long-term educational value.

School connectivity and digital public infrastructure form the foundation of the broader education digital ecosystem. Through this work, countries receive support to understand, plan and strengthen this infrastructure, building the digital foundations on which effective and inclusive education systems can operate.

The UNESCO–UNICEF–ITU Charter for Public Digital Learning Platforms establishes a shared international reference framework to guide the development, governance and integration of digital learning platforms within national education ecosystems.

“Learning is increasingly happening online, and our public education systems need to keep pace. That means building digital foundations that are safe, interoperable, and designed to protect learners. ITU is ready to support countries in transforming the principles of this Charter into inclusive, secure and trusted digital education platforms that leave no learner behind.”

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General, ITU

The Principles of the Charter

The Charter was developed jointly by UNESCO, UNICEF and ITU. The seven principles below are reproduced here to show how Giga’s work on connectivity and digital infrastructure aligns with and supports their implementation.

The Charter articulates principles to ensure that public digital learning platforms are:

Digital learning platforms should be governed and steered in the public interest, with clear accountability, transparency, and long-term public ownership.

Digital learning platforms should be accessible to all learners and teachers, ensuring inclusion regardless of language, ability, connectivity, or socioeconomic context.

Digital learning platforms should support effective teaching and meaningful learning, strengthening teacher roles and aligning with sound pedagogical practices.

Digital learning platforms should strengthen existing education systems by aligning with curricula and integrating with national digital infrastructure, ensuring coherence and reducing fragmentation.

Digital learning platforms should rely on open standards, interoperable architectures, and modular components to enable integration, reuse, and avoid vendor lock-in.

Digital learning platforms should address real educational needs, starting from clear priorities and developing in a practical and user-centered way.

Digital learning platforms should be safe, reliable, and responsible, protecting users’ data and well-being while ensuring appropriate and high-quality content.

The Charter provides direction while allowing countries the flexibility to determine how these principles are applied in their own contexts. Translating them into practice requires technical guidance, documentation and applied demonstration, areas where Giga supports countries in building the secure, interoperable digital infrastructure on which these principles can be put into practice.

In support of Giga’s work, the Charter provides a framework for connecting investments in school connectivity with the wider digital systems required for learning. Its principles reinforce the importance of infrastructure that is inclusive, secure, interoperable, sustainable and governed in the public interest.

From Principles to Practice: The Gateways Collaboration

Giga contributes to this work by providing technical expertise on the infrastructure and interoperability layer that digital learning platforms depend on – including guidance on secure system architecture, data governance, open standards and connectivity integration. This complements the platform architecture documentation and governance work led by the Gateways to Public Digital Learning initiative under UNESCO and UNICEF. Together, the collaboration supports countries in implementing the Charter’s principles in ways that are technically sound, nationally owned and built on robust digital foundations.res based on country experience, lessons learned and emerging good practices, enabling replication across contexts while preserving national ownership and ensuring security and interoperability by design. Through this collaboration, country experience is converted into concrete technical documentation and applied demonstrations that support the operationalization of the Charter’s principles in real-world settings.

Let’s build a connected future together