New UNESCO education report calls for ‘new social contract’

(United Nations News) Imagining a new future for education by 2050, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is asking three questions: What should be continued? What should be abandoned? And what needs to be creatively invented afresh?  

In its new global report published on Thursday, entitled Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, the agency is proposing answers to these three essential questions.  

Over a million people took part in the global consultation process that informed the report, which calls for a major transformation to repair past injustices and enhance the capacity to act together for a more sustainable and just future. 

Two years in the making, UNESCO wants the publication to start a global debate and movement, to forge a new contract between parents, children, and educators around the world.  

According to the agency, the world is at a turning point and global disparities mean that education is not yet fulfilling its promise to help shape peaceful, just, and sustainable futures.  

High living standards coexist with gaping inequalities and, even though the public square is largely active, “the fabric of civil society and democracy is fraying in many places around the world.” 

For UNESCO, rapid technological changes are also transforming lives, but these innovations “are not adequately directed at equity, inclusion and democratic participation.” 

“That’s why we must reimagine education”, the report argues.   

Read more at: United Nations News

Source: CARICOM TODAY