“Education for All – For the Cause of Education”, which is driven by the doctrine of
Education-Of the People; Education-By the People; Education-For the People.
Author’s note:
The advancement of technology and the availability of online learning infrastructure has made it possible to provide learning opportunities anytime and anywhere. However, there is a global learning crisis, with millions of children and young people lacking the necessary skills to break out of poverty and achieve vocational sustainability. Over half of the world’s children and youth are disadvantaged by the digital divide, limiting their access to opportunities.
To address this issue, we can implement the humanistic agenda for education articulated in SDG 4.7 by building on UNESCO’s normative instruments, including the 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education, the 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We can also promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as an integral element of quality education and a key enabler for progress toward sustainable development, as supported by UNGA Resolution 70/209 and Global Citizenship Education.
Making education available to all is crucial in creating a sustainable society. We face global critical environmental, social, and economic challenges that require new ways of thinking and acting. Therefore, we need to educate our students on the basics of sustainable development and prepare them to become environmentally, socially, and economically literate citizens, consumers, workers, and leaders in a way that relates education to life.
To achieve this goal, it is essential that local governments, community organizations, stakeholders from various sectors, and non-governmental organizations actively promote and support ESD. Collaboration with provincial and territorial departments of education, universities, colleges, faculties of education, and other educational institutions is also necessary.
The content and rationale of this paper align with ESD, which sets the direction for education and learning based on values, principles, and practices necessary to respond effectively to current and future challenges in achieving the goal of “Education for all.”
The cost of inaction will be high.
Foreword: Sustainable Development Goal – Target 4.7
The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to ensure that all learners acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development. This includes education for sustainable development and lifestyles, as well as teachings on human rights, gender equality, promoting a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciating cultural diversity and its contribution to sustainable development. The goal is to achieve this by 2030.
Preface:
The current education system must change its outdated approach and allow learners to learn what they need or want to, anytime and anywhere. The learning experience should be transformative, starting from the ground up, and helping learners evolve as individuals, members of a community, and stewards of the environment. Education should empower the mind to think freely, imagine, create, collaborate, communicate, and contribute towards positive change in society and one’s community.
Education should be self-directed, objective-focused, experiential, vocation-based, and inclusive, providing learners with an immersive and engaging learning experience. It should enable learners to demonstrate their knowledge and improve and contribute to the world around them. Education should emphasize that it is not just about learning from books but benefiting society and being a part of life.
Here is why creating these educational opportunities is so important:
As disparities in global learning opportunities worsen, millions of children worldwide are denied access to quality education – and the subsequent opportunities necessary to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty.
We are committed to changing this.
We should partner with rural communities in developing countries, empowering residents to build educational institutions, enrol out-of-school children, and educate adult learners. Let our device and team reach out the privilege of being educated not as a dream anymore but as a commodity within their reach.
Suggestions for Future Action
- Investigating how young people think and learn in different situations and in the pedagogic sciences is essential.
- To improve the profession and retain ambitious teachers, it is essential to involve them in designing and planning curriculums instead of just expecting them to deliver. Teachers’ lack of excitement, interest, and autonomy is causing many to leave the profession. Therefore, engaging teachers in shaping curricular policies that impact classroom life is crucial. By doing so, we can restore teachers’ confidence as autonomous professionals capable of modelling active and engaged citizenship rather than treating them. It’s time to reconsider the main priorities of education policy. Education has the potential to benefit society as a whole and provide individuals with opportunities. However, it’s essential to recognize that education isn’t just about preparing individuals for jobs or building skills. It can also create divisions or foster unity, oppress or liberate, warp or enlighten minds, and even promote unsustainable socio-economic models that lead to poverty instead of enrichment. Policymakers must prioritize peace, sustainability, and a sense of shared humanity in their plans for educational development.
- SDG 4.7 shouldn’t be viewed as just one of many educational goals but as the goal of everything else.
- A platform should bring together experts in learner-centered education and curriculum design for primary and secondary school subjects. Integrating ESD, GCED, and related concepts at all education levels requires a focus on the challenge of designing curricula for basic schooling. Redesigning core subject curricula to promote sustainable development and global citizenship requires significant multi-disciplinary expertise and awareness—academic expertise in the psychology and sociology of education to as passive minions of controlling authorities. Let’s promote a participatory model of curriculum development where teachers become partners in the process.
- Policymakers should reconsider their focus on monitoring and measuring educational outcomes internationally. Instead, they should adopt a broader perspective on the purpose of education and prioritize improving the fundamental components, such as curriculum development, teacher training, and teaching materials. Overemphasis on competitive mechanisms and testing procedures for accountability can lead to a reduction in teacher autonomy and confidence, as well as a narrowing of the curriculum.
UNESCO is committed to achieving the SDGs through educational reform on a global level. The SDGs were agreed upon in 2015 and aim to be achieved by 2030, providing a significant opportunity for educational reform. Education policymakers across Asia and the world are encouraged to address the many targets and strategies outlined. Education is vital in shaping the political and socio-economic challenges faced by Asian societies. Still, due to Asia’s demographic, economic, and geopolitical influence, these challenges are also relevant to the world.
Our target audience is policymakers who want to learn about the effectiveness of basic schooling in achieving sustainable development and global citizenship. We also aim to showcase how schooling can promote a culture of peace and non-violence. We focus on aspects of the curriculum often overlooked in well-known international assessments, thus reminding policymakers and other interested parties that education is more than just acquiring skills for employment.
Our intended audience includes those in charge of creating educational content at all levels of schooling. This can range from drafting frameworks and syllabi to preparing textbooks and other instructional materials. It is important to involve diverse experts and practitioners in curriculum development, including educators. Unfortunately, in many education systems, the role of educators in shaping the curriculum is ignored. However, autonomy and responsible, participatory citizenship are essential for sustainable development. Teachers can only model and impart these qualities with independent professional agency. Additionally, members of various government and non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in children’s education may find this information useful. NGOs have significantly developed curricula for post-conflict settings and other challenging circumstances in many global societies.
This research is also intended for future generations of scholars and researchers in the field of education. Historically, educational research has been viewed as less critical than other academic fields and is often limited to training teachers to meet government standards. However, critical analysis of education and its impact on society is crucial for informed decision-making and should be given more attention in policy-making circles. Additionally, traditional, and new media play an increasing role in shaping and popularizing discussions around education as literacy rates grow worldwide.
This guides and aims at media professionals and their readers interested in education and promoting peace and sustainable development. Education plays a crucial role in transforming human societies. It establishes partnerships, connects us to the world and one another, exposes us to new possibilities, and strengthens our capacities for dialogue and action. However, to create peaceful, just, and sustainable futures, the education system must be transformed to support sustainable coexistence and ecosystems.
Our world is currently going through a significant change. We understand that gaining knowledge and continuing to learn is crucial for progress and change. However, the current state of global inequalities and the urgent need to rethink education’s purpose, methods, content, context, and timing mean that it has yet to deliver on its promise to assist us in creating peaceful, fair, and sustainable futures. In our pursuit of progress and advancement, we have recklessly damaged our environment and jeopardized our survival.
Today, we live in a world with high living standards and large inequalities. While more people are involved in public life, civil society and democracy are deteriorating in many regions globally. Rapid technological advancements are changing our lives, but these innovations are not addressing equity, inclusion, and democratic participation appropriately. It is the responsibility of everyone today to ensure that our world is abundant and everyone has the same human rights. We must act urgently and with great uncertainty, but we have reason to be hopeful. As a species, we can access knowledge and tools to collaborate better.
There is an excellent opportunity for humanity to work together towards creating a better future. The global guidance on the Future of Education aims to determine how education can shape our common world and shared future beyond 2050. Several individuals are already driving these changes, focusing on reimagining learning spaces, decolonizing curricula, and emphasizing the significance of social and emotional learning.
Throughout history, learning has been seen as an end in itself. However, the modern perspective views education as a means to achieve external goals. This instrumental vision of education is a relatively new idea reflected in the universal access to institutionalized schooling we see today. It is used by societies, nation-states, and global organizations to pursue various social, economic, and political aims, such as peace, sustainable development, and global citizenship.
It’s crucial to distinguish between viewing education merely as a technical set of tools for social readjustment versus recognizing it as a living tradition of inquiry fundamental to our humanity. The practical usefulness and inherent value of education are significant and should not be disregarded. This is especially relevant when we consider valuing diversity and fostering active, participatory citizenship, which is vital for promoting peace and sustainability. If educational institutions produce young individuals who mindlessly pursue development that harms the environment and exacerbates social disparities, we risk accelerating our collective destruction. Nurturing these qualities is imperative to ensure a brighter future for all.
To achieve our goals, we must comprehensively understand education as a social process and a component of children’s growth and development. Additionally, recognizing the inherent value of education is crucial in utilizing it to attain specific objectives.
If we view education as a means of enhancing society, it is crucial to comprehend the historical, political, cultural, and social context in which it operates. For example, several Asian nations mentioned in this guide have experienced colonialism, which has significantly influenced the evolution of their educational systems and perceptions of educational objectives.
The fact that history has played a crucial role in shaping the importance given to the pursuit of ‘global citizenship’ and nation-building objectives is worth considering in any discussion. The way people perceive the role of education in social and economic development is heavily influenced by their assumptions about the nature of the state and its role in development. This is true in many countries around the world. Our intention is not to negate the nation-state’s vital significance but to highlight the necessity of questioning and surpassing limited nationalistic perspectives and related ideas about education.
It Is Time for a Post-Progressive Education.
The collaborative learning approach involves students and educators working together to achieve a common goal. In this approach, students take responsibility for their learning and the processes involved. This trend has become increasingly popular in the 21st century as society recognizes the importance of teamwork and collaboration in addressing critical issues. Collaborative learning encourages critical thinking, creative imagination, and experimental exploration, allowing learners to contribute to their communities and become responsible citizens.
When we use the term “progressive” to describe a particular way of doing things, it implies that other, non-progressive approaches are being used. Rather than trying to be progressive within the confines of traditional educational institutions, classrooms, and testing methods, we should establish a post-progressive education system. This system will involve a well-designed education plan and a strong commitment to making education a universal commodity, like food, water, and clothing, available to every person for the common good. The provision of education should be expanded in accordance with the Right to Education. This approach will focus on connecting knowledge and exploring skills in a way that goes beyond traditional schooling customs, encompassing all aspects of life in education itself.
Young people should have equal opportunities to participate in intergenerational justice and democratic principles, regardless of their age, gender, country of origin, socioeconomic status, race, or religious beliefs. Educational institutions should provide physical spaces that allow for self-directed collaborative learning, fostering independent learning progress based on each individual’s inquiry and approach. This learning system should empower learners to become self-directed, equipped with critical thinking skills and metacognitive and social-emotional competencies, enabling them to transition from the unknown to the known. The resulting knowledge should be accessible on a universal platform, reaching the public through satellite technology, fulfilling the “Education for all” goal, breaking traditional barriers of time, affordability, and conventions.
How to implement this?
Let’s plan and develop the “Universal Futuristic Education Portal” in steps. It should be self-directed, student-centred, and competency-based education delivered through satellite. The portal should provide:
Step 1 – Domain 1:
A domain created with well-grounded curriculum content should be made universally available on an open platform (like Google), irrespective of one’s origin/country/language/clan.
The curriculum is designed with specific concepts appropriate for different age groups and levels of learning. This pre-made content consists of resources, tasks, assignments, projects, and assessments to guide and challenge students’ competencies.
Step 2 – Domain 2:
When deciding on the specifics of a field of study, it is important to consider individual expectations and requirements. This includes selecting a domain specialization, country of origin, and preferred curriculum. Certification requirements may vary depending on the chosen options, such as UK, US, Australian, Chinese, Japanese, or Indian.
Step 3 – Domain 3:
To establish a constructive learning environment and foster a strong connection between teachers and students, it is important to consider their preferred teaching styles, facilitation techniques, and language of instruction.
Step 4 – Domain 4:
A vision of an inclusive and universal student-centred education system, with customized specifications in which the learner assumes complete responsibility for their learning, will promote global solidarity and eliminate all forms of inequality, discrimination, and differences. Assessment reports generated at the end of each session will envision, cohort, and devise.
Such a dream of Re-imagining education will satisfy the purpose of;
