In with the new

In 2015, we can expect fundamental shifts in both education philosophy and policy. Rapid societal changes brought about by technology are causing education stakeholders to revisit their views on, as the eminent Jose V. Abueva succinctly puts it, “education for what, and for whom.”

A Unesco 2013 Report titled “Rethinking Education in a Changing World” discusses the notion of a dominant Global North and an emerging Global South, where “diverse political economies and multiple ethnographies” have spurred equally diverse alternative learning approaches. (The report underscores that the terms “Global North” and “Global South” refer more to locations of power rather than geography.)

The report comes from the plenary discussions of a Senior Experts Group convened by Unesco Director General Irina Bokova. This 13-member assembly represents a wide range of expertise from academia, policymaking, civil society, and industry. It is chaired by Amina Mohammed, the United Nations Secretary-General’s special adviser on post-2015 development planning, and cochaired by Prof. John Morgan, holder of the Unesco Chair of Political Economy and Education at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Their continuing mandate is “to reaffirm a common core of universal values while recognizing the diversity of lived worlds. Based on the principles of respect for diversity and equal dignity, education can combat cultural domination and the idea of a homogenizing world society.”

The report identifies development trends that present both challenges and opportunities for “the creation, validation, reproduction, dissemination, and appropriation of knowledge.”

The Senior Experts Group says: “While educational systems often tend to reproduce social and economic inequalities, they can also be made to reduce such inequalities. How can we ensure that education systems will not reproduce inequalities and will distribute opportunities for human and social development in an equitable manner?”

The consequence of such inequalities is evident in low employment growth among the youth even in countries with relatively stable to robust economies.

The report goes on to say: “The fact that qualified jobs are becoming scarcer is causing increasing frustration among families and young graduates around the world. In many countries of the Global South, in particular, the arrival, onto a constricted labor market, of numerous youth—often the first within their communities to have benefited from expanded access to education—is exacerbating the gap between the aspirations created by formal education and the realities of scarce employment. Large communities which are entering formal education for the first time will no longer reap the benefits of education in terms of employment and the promise of a better future.”

Increased mobility resulting in higher levels of cultural diversity among countries is another development trend. The Unesco report maintains that education must be able to prepare societies for respect of human dignity regardless of cultural, social, and ethnic origins through values and citizenship education. “Arguably,” it says,
“enhanced diversity in education can improve the quality of classroom learning by introducing both educators and learners to the diversity of perspectives and the diversity of lived worlds.”

Diversity directly affects education policy, particularly in the choice of language(s) of instruction, the nature of citizenship education, including in such disciplines as history, geography, social studies, and religion in multicultural societies. The Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education component of the Philippine K-to-12 curriculum is a clear response to this issue.

The digital revolution is another development trend that is triggering “radical transformation” in education, according to the report.

Says the Senior Experts Group: “The multiplication and diversification of sources of information, the continued acceleration in the production and circulation of knowledge, combined with the development of new information and communication technologies and digital media, are spurring the emergence of new forms of learning in the context of the knowledge society. These changes in the spaces, times, and relations in which learning is taking place favors the idea of a network of learning spaces where nonformal and informal spaces of learning will increasingly need to interact with and complement formal educational institutions.”

Any discussion on genuine education reform always identifies the importance of teachers. The report, however, says that 1) the influx of unqualified teachers, not only in response to teacher shortages but also for financial reasons, the casualization of teachers through contract-teaching, particularly in higher education, and their reduced autonomy, 2) the erosion of the quality of the teaching profession as a result of standardized testing and high-stake teacher evaluations, 3) the encroachment, within educational institutions, of private management techniques, and 4) the growing gap between the remuneration of teachers and professionals in other sectors, all point to the deprofessionalizing of teachers in both the North and South. This is a trend that countries must look into seriously.

The Senior Experts Group emphasizes: “No matter how we conceptualize education, the learning professions will play a central role in whatever we try to achieve. The role of the teaching profession is therefore crucial. It is very important to address the role of teachers and their role in setting standards for the profession.”

Butch Hernandez (butchhernandez@gmail.com) is the executive director of the Eggie Apostol Foundation and the education lead for talent development at the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines.