Attachments
Summary
The challenges that we are facing can be addressed only through stronger international cooperation. The Summit of the Future, to be held in 2024, is an opportunity to agree on multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow, strengthening global governance for both present and future generations (General Assembly resolution 76/307). In my capacity as Secretary-General, I have been invited to provide inputs to the preparations for the Summit in the form of action-oriented recommendations, building on the proposals contained in my report entitled “Our Common Agenda” (A/75/982), which was itself a response to the declaration on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations (Assembly resolution 75/1). The present policy brief is one such input. It serves to elaborate on the ideas first proposed in Our Common Agenda, taking into account subsequent guidance from Member States and more than one year of intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder consultations, and rooted in the purposes and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments.
Introduction
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The right to education and lifelong learning is at the very heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development because education, knowledge and learning are central to the dignity, growth and development of the individual. For centuries, education has been the great equalizer, a driving force of nation-building, and the engine of social, cultural, economic and technological progress. Today, however, beset by twin crises of equity and relevance, education as we know it is no longer fit for purpose.
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Against a global backdrop of unprecedented wealth and severe inequalities, progress towards the education-related Sustainable Development Goals and targets has faltered. Hundreds of millions of children and young people remain out of school. Billions of those in school are not even acquiring the basics. Girls continue to encounter discrimination in education and, as elsewhere, the most vulnerable and marginalized – low-income groups, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, refugees and displaced persons, among others – are being hit hardest. All the while, global inequities in education financing are making it almost impossible for low- and middle-income countries to catch up.
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Moreover, as our world grapples with exponential technological change, existential climate challenges and growing polarization, uncertainty and distrust, the very relevance of contemporary education systems is being questioned like never before. For the most part, education systems remain geared to prepare children and young people for their adult life, rather than supporting them and learners of all ages to acquire the capacities to learn throughout their lives. Education systems remain rooted in rote learning and focused on teaching students what society believes they need to know, rather than assisting them to learn how to thrive in an uncertain future. In some instances, education systems may even be working against our common goals by reinforcing harmful stereotypes and practices that drive inequality, division and environmental degradation.
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These twin crises of equity and relevance in education are of enormous consequence for individual rights, for national Governments and, increasingly, for the international community as a whole. As the movement of goods, services, capital and people becomes increasingly global, and as the digital and green transitions urgently call on our collective action, so too will the need increase for people in every corner of the world to possess an evolving pool of knowledge, skills and capacities. Failure to reset education systems globally to ensure everyone is prepared for the markets and uncertain future risks further entrenching a two-speed world, deepening inequalities and exacerbating global instability.
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As outlined in Our Common Agenda, our world is faced with a stark and urgent choice between breakdown or breakthrough. By overhauling how we learn, what we learn, when we learn and where we learn, and by equipping societies with new skills, capacities and mindsets for a sustainable and just future, we can create the driving force we need to break through to a better future for all. In short, if we are to transform our world, then education systems themselves must be transformed across the world.
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Building on the Transforming Education Summit and the report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education, the present policy brief examines the current crisis in education in more detail and puts forward a vision and a set of guiding actions for countries and the international community to transform education. It concludes with two overarching recommendations for the consideration of Member States in their preparations for the Summit of the Future:
(a) Deliver on the commitments made in the 2030 Agenda and at the 2022
Transforming Education Summit and commit, in A Pact for the Future, to a new vision for the creation of learning societies centred on the following six principles:
(i) Building an integrated system of education and lifelong learning in a world of uncertainty;
(ii) Ensuring equity, access and inclusion in and through education;
(iii) Making curricula and pedagogies relevant for today and for tomorrow;
(iv) Repositioning the teaching profession to ensure that teachers increasingly serve as creative guides and facilitators in the learning process;
(v) Harnessing digital tools and resources to expand access, improve learning and increase capacities to navigate the future and avoid the digital divide;
(vi) Investing more, more equitably and more efficiently in education.
(b) Recognize education and lifelong learning as a global public good and galvanize international cooperation to invest in and transform education while achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.