10 major issues in the global educational system

The global education crisis – even more severe than previously estimated

Ellinore carroll, joão pedro azevedo, jessica bergmann, matt brossard, gwang- chol chang, borhene chakroun, marie-helene cloutier, suguru mizunoya, nicolas reuge, halsey rogers.

In our recent   The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery report (produced jointly by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank), we sounded the alarm: this generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, because of COVID-19-related school closures and economic shocks. This new projection far exceeds the $10 trillion estimate released in 2020 and reveals that the impact of the pandemic is more severe than previously thought . 

The pandemic and school closures not only jeopardized children’s health and safety with domestic violence and child labor increasing, but also impacted student learning substantially. The report indicates that in low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  – already above 50 percent before the pandemic – could reach 70 percent largely as a result of the long school closures and the relative ineffectiveness of remote learning.

Unless action is taken, learning losses may continue to accumulate once children are back in school, endangering future learning.

Figure 1. Countries must accelerate learning recovery

Severe learning losses and worsening inequalities in education

Results from global simulations of the effect of school closures on learning are now being corroborated by country estimates of actual learning losses. Evidence from Brazil , rural Pakistan , rural India , South Africa , and Mexico , among others, shows substantial losses in math and reading. In some low- and middle-income countries, on average, learning losses are roughly proportional to the length of the closures—meaning that each month of school closures led to a full month of learning losses (Figure 1, selected LMICs and HICs presents an average effect of 100% and 43%, respectively), despite the best efforts of decision makers, educators, and families to maintain continuity of learning.

However, the extent of learning loss varies substantially across countries and within countries by subject, students’ socioeconomic status, gender, and age or grade level (Figure 1 illustrates this point, note the large standard deviation, a measure which shows data are spread out far from the mean). For example, results from two states in Mexico show significant learning losses in reading and in math for students aged 10-15. The estimated learning losses were greater in math than reading, and they disproportionately affected younger learners, students from low-income backgrounds, and girls.

Figure 2. The average learning loss standardized by the length of the school closure was close to 100% in Low- and Middle-Income countries, and 43% in High-Income countries, with a standard deviation of 74% and 30%, respectively.

While most countries have yet to measure learning losses, data from several countries, combined with more extensive evidence on unequal access to remote learning and at-home support, shows the crisis has exacerbated inequalities in education globally.

• Children from low-income households, children with disabilities, and girls were less likely to access remote learning due to limited availability of electricity, connectivity, devices, accessible technologies as well as discrimination and social and gender norms.
• Younger students had less access to age-appropriate remote learning and were more affected by learning loss than older students. Pre-school-age children, who are at a pivotal stage for learning and development, faced a double disadvantage as they were often left out of remote learning and school reopening plans.
• Learning losses were greater for students of lower socioeconomic status in various countries, including Ghana , Mexico , and Pakistan .
• While the gendered impact of school closures on learning is still emerging, initial evidence points to larger learning losses among girls, including in South Africa and Mexico .

As a result, these children risk missing out on much of the boost that schools and learning can provide to their well-being and life chances. The learning recovery response must therefore target support to those that need it most, to prevent growing inequalities in education.

Beyond learning, growing evidence shows the negative effects school closures have had on students’ mental health and well-being, health and nutrition, and protection, reinforcing the vital role schools play in providing comprehensive support and services to students.

Critical and Urgent Need to Focus on Learning Recovery

How should decision makers and the international community respond to the growing global education crisis?

Reopening schools and keeping them open must be the top priority, globally. While nearly every country in the world offered remote learning opportunities for students, the quality and reach of such initiatives varied, and in most cases, they offered a poor substitute for in-person instruction. Stemming and reversing learning losses, especially for the most vulnerable students, requires in-person schooling. Decision makers need to reassure parents and caregivers that with adequate safety measures, such as social distancing, masking, and improved ventilation, global evidence shows that children can resume in-person schooling safely.

But just reopening schools with a business-as-usual approach won’t reverse learning losses. Countries need to create Learning Recovery Programs . Three lines of action will be crucial:

• Consolidating the curriculum – to help teachers prioritize essential material that students have missed while out of school, even if the content is usually covered in earlier grades, to ensure the curriculum is aligned to students’ learning levels. As an example, Tanzania consolidated its curriculum for grade 1 and 2 in 2015, reducing the number of subjects taught and increasing time on ensuring the acquisition of foundational numeracy and literacy.
• Extending instructional time – by extending the school day, modifying the academic calendar to make the school year longer, or by offering summer school for all students or those in need. In Mexico , the Ministry of Public Education announced planned extensions to the academic calendar to help recovery. In Madagascar , the government scaled up an existing two-month summer “catch-up” program for students who reintegrate into school after having left the system.
• Improving the efficiency of learning – by supporting teachers to apply structured pedagogy and targeted instruction. A structured pedagogy intervention in Kenya using teachers guides with lesson plans has proven to be highly effective. Targeted instruction, or aligning instruction to students’ learning level, has been successfully implemented at scale in Cote D’Ivoire .

Finally, the report emphasizes the need for adequate funding. As of June 2021, the education and training sector had been allocated less than 3 percent of global stimulus packages. Much more funding will be needed for immediate learning recovery if countries are to avert the long-term damage to productivity and inclusion that they now face.

Learning Recovery as a Springboard to an Accelerated Learning Trajectory

Accelerating learning recovery has benefits that go well beyond short-term gains:  it can give children the necessary foundations for a lifetime of learning, and it can help countries increase the efficiency, equity, and resilience of schooling. This can be achieved if countries build on investments made and lessons learned during the crisis—most notably, with a focus on six areas:

• Assessing student learning so instruction can be targeted to students’ learning levels and specific needs.
• Investing in digital learning opportunities for all students, ensuring that technology is fit for purpose and focused on enhancing human interactions.
• Reinforcing support that leverages the role of parents, families, and communities in children’s learning.
• Ensuring that teachers are supported and have access to practical, high-quality professional development opportunities, teaching guides and learning materials. 
• Increasing the share of education in the national budget allocation of stimulus packages and tying it to investments mentioned above that can accelerate learning.
• Investing in evidence building - in particular, implementation research, to understand what works and how to scale what works to the system level.

It is time to shift from crisis response to learning recovery. We must make sure that investments and actions for learning recovery lay the foundations for more efficient, equitable, and resilient education systems—systems that truly deliver learning and well-being for all children and youth. Only then can we ensure learning continuity in the face of future disruption.

The report was produced as part of the  Mission: Recovering Education 2021 , through which the  World Bank ,  UNESCO , and  UNICEF  are focused on three priorities: bringing all children back to schools, recovering learning losses, and preparing and supporting teachers.

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Chief, Education – UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti

Chief of Education Policy Section, Division of Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems, UNESCO Education Sector

Director, Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems, UNESCO Education Sector

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Senior Advisor, Statistics and Monitoring (Education) – UNICEF New York HQ

Senior Adviser Education, UNICEF Headquarters

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Global Education

By: Hannah Ritchie , Veronika Samborska , Natasha Ahuja , Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser

A good education offers individuals the opportunity to lead richer, more interesting lives. At a societal level, it creates opportunities for humanity to solve its pressing problems.

The world has gone through a dramatic transition over the last few centuries, from one where very few had any basic education to one where most people do. This is not only reflected in the inputs to education – enrollment and attendance – but also in outcomes, where literacy rates have greatly improved.

Getting children into school is also not enough. What they learn matters. There are large differences in educational outcomes : in low-income countries, most children cannot read by the end of primary school. These inequalities in education exacerbate poverty and existing inequalities in global incomes .

On this page, you can find all of our writing and data on global education.

Key insights on Global Education

The world has made substantial progress in increasing basic levels of education.

Access to education is now seen as a fundamental right – in many cases, it’s the government’s duty to provide it.

But formal education is a very recent phenomenon. In the chart, we see the share of the adult population – those older than 15 – that has received some basic education and those who haven’t.

In the early 1800s, fewer than 1 in 5 adults had some basic education. Education was a luxury; in all places, it was only available to a small elite.

But you can see that this share has grown dramatically, such that this ratio is now reversed. Less than 1 in 5 adults has not received any formal education.

This is reflected in literacy data , too: 200 years ago, very few could read and write. Now most adults have basic literacy skills.

What you should know about this data

• Basic education is defined as receiving some kind of formal primary, secondary, or tertiary (post-secondary) education.
• This indicator does not tell us how long a person received formal education. They could have received a full program of schooling, or may only have been in attendance for a short period. To account for such differences, researchers measure the mean years of schooling or the expected years of schooling .

Despite being in school, many children learn very little

International statistics often focus on attendance as the marker of educational progress.

However, being in school does not guarantee that a child receives high-quality education. In fact, in many countries, the data shows that children learn very little.

Just half – 48% – of the world’s children can read with comprehension by the end of primary school. It’s based on data collected over a 9-year period, with 2016 as the average year of collection.

This is shown in the chart, where we plot averages across countries with different income levels. 1

The situation in low-income countries is incredibly worrying, with 90% of children unable to read by that age.

This can be improved – even among high-income countries. The best-performing countries have rates as low as 2%. That’s more than four times lower than the average across high-income countries.

Making sure that every child gets to go to school is essential. But the world also needs to focus on what children learn once they’re in the classroom.

Millions of children learn only very little. How can the world provide a better education to the next generation?

Research suggests that many children – especially in the world’s poorest countries – learn only very little in school. What can we do to improve this?

• This data does not capture total literacy over someone’s lifetime. Many children will learn to read eventually, even if they cannot read by the end of primary school. However, this means they are in a constant state of “catching up” and will leave formal education far behind where they could be.

Children across the world receive very different amounts of quality learning

There are still significant inequalities in the amount of education children get across the world.

This can be measured as the total number of years that children spend in school. However, researchers can also adjust for the quality of education to estimate how many years of quality learning they receive. This is done using an indicator called “learning-adjusted years of schooling”.

On the map, you see vast differences across the world.

In many of the world’s poorest countries, children receive less than three years of learning-adjusted schooling. In most rich countries, this is more than 10 years.

Across most countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa – where the largest share of children live – the average years of quality schooling are less than 7.

• Learning-adjusted years of schooling merge the quantity and quality of education into one metric, accounting for the fact that similar durations of schooling can yield different learning outcomes.
• Learning-adjusted years is computed by adjusting the expected years of school based on the quality of learning, as measured by the harmonized test scores from various international student achievement testing programs. The adjustment involves multiplying the expected years of school by the ratio of the most recent harmonized test score to 625. Here, 625 signifies advanced attainment on the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) test, with 300 representing minimal attainment. These scores are measured in TIMSS-equivalent units.

Hundreds of millions of children worldwide do not go to school

While most children worldwide get the opportunity to go to school, hundreds of millions still don’t.

In the chart, we see the number of children who aren’t in school across primary and secondary education.

This number was around 260 million in 2019.

Many children who attend primary school drop out and do not attend secondary school. That means many more children or adolescents are missing from secondary school than primary education.

Access to basic education: almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school

The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but millions of children are still not in school.

The gender gap in school attendance has closed across most of the world

Globally, until recently, boys were more likely to attend school than girls. The world has focused on closing this gap to ensure every child gets the opportunity to go to school.

Today, these gender gaps have largely disappeared. In the chart, we see the difference in the global enrollment rates for primary, secondary, and tertiary (post-secondary) education. The share of children who complete primary school is also shown.

We see these lines converging over time, and recently they met: rates between boys and girls are the same.

For tertiary education, young women are now more likely than young men to be enrolled.

While the differences are small globally, there are some countries where the differences are still large: girls in Afghanistan, for example, are much less likely to go to school than boys.

Research & Writing

Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We are all losing out because of this.

Access to basic education: almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school, interactive charts on global education.

This data comes from a paper by João Pedro Azevedo et al.

João Pedro Azevedo, Diana Goldemberg, Silvia Montoya, Reema Nayar, Halsey Rogers, Jaime Saavedra, Brian William Stacy (2021) – “ Will Every Child Be Able to Read by 2030? Why Eliminating Learning Poverty Will Be Harder Than You Think, and What to Do About It .” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9588, March 2021.

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These are the barriers facing global education targets, according to UNESCO

The education sector will need an injection of funds if countries are to meet their targets. Image:  © UNICEF/Mulugeta Ayene

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Stay up to date:.

• Many countries could fail to reach their national education targets for 2030 unless they receive an extra $97 billion in funding, according to a new UNESCO report.
• This is partly because pandemic disruptions have led to massive learning losses that exacerbated a pre-existing education crisis.
• There is a need to triple the number of pre-primary teachers in low-income countries and double them in lower-middle income countries by 2030, the report says.
• And there need to be strategies in place to increase the effectiveness of any funding.

Without $97 billion in extra funding, a range of countries will fail to meet their 2030 national education targets, a new UN report revealed on Friday, calling for an urgent review of financing.

The paper Can countries afford their national SDG4 benchmarks? by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) was written as input for the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ).

The latest figures show that 56% of 8-12-year-olds across 29 countries are involved in at least one of the world's major cyber-risks: cyberbullying, video-game addiction, online sexual behaviour or meeting with strangers encountered on the web.

Using the Forum's platform to accelerate its work globally, #DQEveryChild , an initiative to increase the digital intelligence quotient (DQ) of children aged 8-12, has reduced cyber-risk exposure by 15%.

In March 2019, the DQ Global Standards Report 2019 was launched – the first attempt to define a global standard for digital literacy, skills and readiness across the education and technology sectors.

Our System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Media, Information and Entertainment has brought together key stakeholders to ensure better digital intelligence for children worldwide. Find our more about DQ Citizenship in our Impact Story .

It focused on Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Findings showed that the education sector will need an injection of funds if countries are to meet their targets.

New strategies needed

In addition to mobilizing additional resources, strategies are needed to increase the effectiveness of funding.

The largest financing gap is in sub-Saharan Africa: $70 billion per year. The region has the furthest distance to travel, with 20 per cent of primary school age children and almost 60 per cent of upper secondary school age youth not in school.

Around one third of the gap could be filled if donors fulfilled their aid commitments and prioritized basic education in the poorest countries, the report found.

Wanted: More teachers

Other key findings emphasize that costs include the need to triple the number of pre-primary teachers in low-income countries and double them in lower-middle income countries by 2030. The number of primary school teachers needs to increase by nearly 50 per cent in low-income countries.

While the full impact of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions remains unknown, the report found that costs also include making up for massive learning losses that exacerbated the pre-existing learning crisis. Only half of children and adolescents are now prepared for the future having completed their education and with minimum proficiency in reading.

Meanwhile, two thirds of low and lower-middle-income countries had cut their public education spending in the first year following the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

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Children living in poverty face many barriers to accessing an education. Some are obvious — like not having a school to go to — while others are more subtle. Like the teacher at the school not having had the training needed to help children learn effectively.

Increasing access to education can improve the overall health and longevity of a society , grow economies , and even combat climate change . Yet in many developing countries, children’s access to education can be limited by numerous factors. Language barriers, gender roles, and reliance on child labor can all stall progress to provide quality education. The world’s most vulnerable children from disadvantaged communities are more likely to miss out on school. This includes young girls and children with disabilities,

Here are 10 of the greatest challenges in global education that the world needs to take action on right now to achieve Global Goal 4 : Quality Education by 2030. 

1. A lack of funding for education

Developing countries can’t rely solely on their own financing for education — there’s also a need for more foreign aid.

Only 20% of aid for education goes to low-income countries, according to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). But it costs an average of $1.25 a day per child in developing countries to provide 13 years of education.

Read More: How to Get Tickets to Global Citizen Festival 2019 in NYC

If each developing country invested just 15 cents more per child, it could make all the difference. There is currently a $39 billion gap to providing quality education to all children by 2030. GPE encourages developing countries to contribute 20% of their national budget to education, and allocate 45% of it to primary education. 

2. Having no teacher, or having an untrained teacher

Teacher effectiveness has been found to be the most important predictor of student learning. GPE is determined to fight the global teacher crisis at hand. 

There aren't enough teachers to achieve universal primary or secondary education. And many of the teachers that are currently working are untrained. As a result, children aren’t receiving a proper education. There are 130 million children in school who are not learning basic skills like reading, writing and math.  

Lean More: The 2019 Global Citizen Festival in New York

Globally, the UN estimates that 69 million new teachers are required to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030. To offer every child primary education, 25.8 million school teachers need to be recruited . Meanwhile, in 1 out of every 3 countries, less than three-quarters of teachers are trained to national standards.

3. No classroom

A child cannot learn without the right environment. Children in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are often squeezed into overcrowded classrooms, classrooms that are falling apart, or are learning outside.  They also lack textbooks, school supplies, and other tools they need to excel.

In Malawi, for example, there are an average of 130 children per classroom in first grade. It’s not just a lack of classrooms that’s the problem, but also all the basic facilities you would expect a school to have — like running water and toilets. 

Read More: Nigeria Says It Has the Highest Number of Out-of-School Children in the World

In Chad, only 1 in 7 schools has potable water, and just 1 in 4 has a toilet; moreover, only one-third of the toilets that do exist are for girls only — a real disincentive and barrier for girls to come to school.

When girls don’t have access to safe toilets, they are often harassed or attacked when looking for a private place to go. Girls also miss or drop out of school when they begin menstruating if they don’t have the sanitation facilities or sanitary products to manage their periods with pride and dignity.

4. A lack of learning materials

Outdated and worn-out textbooks are often shared by six or more students in many parts of the world. In Tanzania, for example, only 3.5% of all sixth grade pupils had sole use of a reading textbook. In Cameroon, there are 11 primary school students for every reading textbook and 13 for every mathematics textbook in second grade. Workbooks, exercise sheets, readers, and other core materials to help students learn their lessons are in short supply. Teachers also need materials to help prepare their lessons, share with their students, and guide their lessons. 

Read More: Half of All Child Refugees Aren't in School: Why This Is a Massive Problem

5. The exclusion of children with disabilities

Despite the fact that education is a universal human right, being denied access to school is common for the world’s 93 to 150 million children with disabilities. In some of the world’s poorest countries, up to 95% of children with disabilities are out of school.

Students with disabilities have lower attendance rates and are more  likely to be out of school or leave school before completing primary education. They are suspended or expelled at a rate  more than double  the rate of their non-special education peers.

A combination of discrimination, lack of training in inclusive teaching methods among teachers, and a lack of accessible schools leave this group uniquely vulnerable to being denied their right to education.

Read More: 72 Guidelines for Students With Disabilities Have Been Rescinded by the US Dept. of Education

6. Being the ‘wrong’ gender

Put simply, gender is one of the biggest reasons why children are denied an education. Despite recent advances in girls’ education, a generation of young women has been left behind. Over 130 million young women around the world are not currently enrolled in school. One in 3 girls in the developing world marries before the age of 18, and usually leaves school if they do.

Read More: World Leaders Warn Failure to Educate Girls Will Cause 'Catastrophes'

Keeping girls in school benefits them and their families, but poverty forces many families to choose which of their children to send to school. Girls often miss out due to belief that there’s less value in educating a girl than a boy. Instead, they are sent to work, forced into marriage , or made to stay at home to look after siblings and work on household chores. Girls also miss days of school every year or are too embarrassed to participate in class, because they don’t have appropriate menstrual hygiene education or toilet facilities at their school to manage their period.

7. Living in a country in conflict or at risk of conflict

There are many casualties of any war, and education systems are often destroyed. Children exposed to violence are more at risk of under-achieving and dropping out of school. The impact of conflict cannot be overstated. Nearly 250 million children are living in countries affected by conflicts. More than 75 million children and young people aged 3 to 18 are currently in urgent need of educational support in 35 crisis-affected countries,  with young girls 90% more likely to be out of secondary school in conflict areas than elsewhere.

Read More: UN: Nearly 1 Billion Kids Will Be Jobless If Education Aid Stays Flat

Teachers and students often flee their homes during conflicts, and continuity of learning is greatly disrupted. In total, 75 million children have had their education disrupted disrupted by conflict or crisis, including natural disasters that destroy schools and the environment around them. Less than half of the world’s refugee children are enrolled in school, according  to the UN Refugee Agency. Worryingly, education has thus far been a very low priority in humanitarian aid to countries in conflict — and less than 3% of global humanitarian assistance was allocated to education in 2016.

Without support, conflict-affected children lose out on the chance to reach their full potential and rebuild their communities.

8. Distance from home to school

For many children around the world, a walk to school of up to three hours in each direction is not uncommon . This is just too much for many children, particularly children living with a disability, those suffering from malnutrition or illness, or those who are required to work around the household. Imagine having to set off for school, hungry, at 5 a.m. every day, not to return until 7 p.m. Many children, especially girls, are also vulnerable to violence on their long and hazardous journeys to and from school.

9. Hunger and poor nutrition

The impact of hunger on education systems is gravely underreported. Being severely malnourished, to the point it impacts on brain development, can be the same as losing four grades of schooling. It is estimated that around 155 million children under the age of five are estimated to be stunted . Stunting –– impaired growth and development that children experience from poor infection, and inadequate stimulation –– can affect a child’s cognitive abilities as well as their focus and concentration in school. As a result, stunted children are 19% less likely to be able to read by age eight. Conversely, good nutrition can be crucial preparation for good learning.

Read More: Worst Places for Education Around The World

10. The expense of education 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes clear that every child has the right to a free basic education, so that poverty and lack of money should not be a barrier to schooling. In many developing countries, over the last several, decades, governments have announced the abolition of school fees and as a result, they have seen impressive increases in the number of children going to school. 

Read More: Bloomberg Just Donated $1.8 Billion to Help Low-Income Students Afford College

But for many of the poorest families, school remains too expensive and children are forced to stay at home doing chores or work themselves. Families remain locked in a cycle of poverty that goes on for generations. In many countries throughout Africa education is theoretically free. In practice “informal fees” see parents forced to pay for “compulsory items” like uniforms, books, pens, extra lessons, exam fees, or funds to support the school buildings. In other places, the lack of functioning public (government-supported) schools means that parents have no choice but to send their children to private schools. Even if these schools are “low-fee,” they are unaffordable for the poorest families who risk making themselves destitute in their efforts to get their children better lives through education.

The 2019 Global Citizen Festival in New York will be presented by Citi and Cisco and in association with our Production Partner, Live Nation. MSNBC, Comcast NBCUniversal, and iHeart will serve as Presenting Media Partners and will air a live simulcast of the Festival on MSNBC and on iHeart Radio Stations. The Festival will also be livestreamed on YouTube and Twitter, presented by Johnson & Johnson. 

Proud partners of the 2019 Global Citizen Festival include Global Citizen’s global health partner and major partner Johnson & Johnson, and major partners P&G, Verizon, and NYC Parks.

Defeat Poverty

10 Barriers to Education That Children Living in Poverty Face

Aug. 13, 2019

Seven Global Challenges for 21st Century Education

The world population has quadrupled since World War II (from two to nearly eight billion). Artificial intelligence now effectively has the computing power of a human brain. We are exhausting over 150% of the planet’s biocapacity. Globalisation and social media have made the world far more accessible than ever before. At the same time growth in income disparity have further created separate enclaves in the planet’s population.

The world of today is one of “VUCA” (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). Society would appear unrecognisable (at least technically) to our great-grandparents. And the intuitive response is that the education we are providing for young people should, therefore, change radically.

As we approach the first quarter of the 21st Century, schools, universities, industries and society at large are asking fundamental questions about education. Whether you like it or not, we are in a paradigm-shifting age. Technological, demographic, social, environmental, economic and political shifts are forcing us to redefine what our educational structure should be.

The discussion has also widened from the inner circles of curriculum experts and researchers to the broader public. Discourses run amok from academics, neuroscientists to sound bites from politicians, celebrities and CEOs.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN EDUCATOR

At the centre of this whirlwind is the young person looking into the midst of the future. In each child, there is the promise of the powerful, ethical, creative, critical and engaged adult they will become.

What a privilege to educate but what a responsibility too. The decisions we take as instructors can help shape the way they act for the future of humanity. Just as the educator nurtures knowledge, skills and dispositions in the learner and helps her along the path to maturity, so should the educator open her mind to the world with the fresh perspectives of youth. We could dynamically conceptualize so much of the world’s present and future in game-changing ways if adults could embrace the vibrancy, curiosity, hope and thirst for opportunity that characterises growth mindsets as opposed to the fixed mindset of closure and judgement that, unfortunately, distinguish so much of the adult world.

A thread that runs through this book is a series of snapshots and stories of young people that I’ve worked with in my career as a teacher and a head of school. These voices, anonymised, remind us that discussions about the future of education must involve those it implies. Those who will carry the present into the future, those with dreams for the future. I say this because many forecast studies are all doom and gloom. They come from generations that will not be on the planet to live through the countless catastrophes that loom ahead. We need to think about the future with wonder and appetite, not fear and regret.

Seven Challenges

Education challenge one: mindfulness.

In many so-called developed countries and most schools, human beings are complaining about high levels of stress as they carry out hyperactive lifestyles that can become unhealthy and compulsive. This has led to some responses, especially in schools, in the area of Mindfulness. What are schools doing and should they be doing to promote happy, focussed calm and appreciative people and how well does the Mindfulness movement stand up to this challenge?

Part of this chapter looks, critically, at new-age attempts to spiritualise life through meditative practice while avenues that can lead to an equally and possibly far more mindful lifestyle are relatively simple and have been embedded in school programmes for years.

The areas of sports and arts can have the effect of allowing the mind to gain focus. We must sensibly mediate the interference of new technologies in the average person’s life.

EDUCATION CHALLENGE TWO: SINGULARITY

The machines that humans have built and the algorithms that drive them are challenging the uniqueness of some of the essential constituents of human intelligence. Human beings, including young people, appear increasingly attached to devices and dependent on them. What are the implications for education?

The chapter grapples with definitions of intelligence, both human and artificial, and explores how human beings are operating socially and cognitively alongside algorithms and how this might happen in the future. Artificial intelligence implies that some areas of human activity can be outsourced by machines whereas others cannot. This leaves a space for schooling to develop those facets of humanity that are uniquely human and cannot be taken over by artificial intelligence.

EDUCATION CHALLENGE THREE: TERRORISM

International terrorism has become a global problem. Few societies feel entirely sheltered from the risk of an attack. A climate of fear, mistrust and xenophobia grows in response to these attacks. How can schools work with young people to face the problem of terrorism and, hopefully, reduce it?

An educational approach to terrorism must incorporate not only awareness of what terrorism is and why it exists, but the more subtle underpinning areas of identity and faith that are ultimately determining factors in the conversion of moderate people into terrorists. I argue that the spiritual vacuum created by a secular Western approach to life if left unattended can be colonised quite easily by fundamentalists.

On the side of victims or potential victims of terrorism, the chapter discusses steps that institutions can take to enhance security and support the community with coping mechanisms in the aftermath of an attack.

EDUCATION CHALLENGE FOUR: SUSTAINABILITY

We are depleting the planet’s biocapacity at an exponential rate. If current behaviours do not stop soon, we will quickly exhaust our planet’s resources. Human beings will then face a level of resource scarcity that will make life intolerable if not impossible. What can schools do to slow down this time bomb?

Such a situation, probably the most urgent for our planet, even if the behaviour continues to suggest that biological extinction. It is a distant and abstract possibility, requires a deep-seated emotional and intellectual approach to ensure that sustainable action is rooted in a long-term, lifelong attitude to profound change.

I argue that we have to design learning experiences that ensure that young people love and respect nature while further understanding the valuable, erstwhile neglected knowledge and appreciation of life that we can learn from indigenous cultures. An additional facet of a sustainable education is making students aware of the local parameters of environmentalism so that they do not fall into the trap of seeing planetary causes as generalised, distant needs while disregarding their immediate surroundings.

EDUCATION CHALLENGE FIVE: POST-TRUTH POLITICS

Political developments in the middle of the first quarter of the 21st Century have led some to argue that truth does not mean what it used to, that we are entering a type of post-truth era where communications strategies supersede the verity of what is being discussed. I argue that while it is true that 21st Century democratic politics seems to be saturated in some areas, at the core of it, things have not changed that much since rhetoric, oversimplification and deception have been standard tools for political gain as far back as we can think.

We should, nonetheless, be careful about how we grapple with information in the 21st Century. There are approaches to knowledge construction that are essential in an age of sound bites broadcast on social media.

EDUCATION CHALLENGE SIX: KNOWLEDGE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Because of new technologies and the way that knowledge is made available and distributed in the 21st Century, some believe that we need to rethink what is taught in school entirely and perhaps teach less content, opening more time and opportunities for skills development. This debate is more and more acute. I grapple with it by pointing out some essential features of knowledge that cannot be glossed over. I argue that knowledge in the 21st Century is more necessary than ever and that, on the contrary, skills over knowledge discourses, depending of course on how they are construed, tend to be misguided.

The chapter goes further than this by pointing out where knowledge could be salient for the needs of our times in the humanities and literature. I grapple with the ideologically sensitive issue of a canon and how to situate non-Western experiences and cultural representations in a world canon that transcends WASP, DWEM and Western archetypes without discarding them or attempting to belittle their centrality, for central they are.

EDUCATION CHALLENGE SEVEN: CHARACTER

At the core of any response to the global challenges that face us is the question of a person’s character. The moral fibre that will determine the scope and style of their response to any given situation. Today’s world is fast changing and uncertain and therefore requires a particularly developed level of resolve and sturdiness.

You can determine character through three core concepts: discipline, ethics and emotional intelligence.

I flesh these out in this chapter as I address questions related to mastery and determination.

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

In this book, I look beyond the classroom to everything that forms a person’s character. It is not only about what schools can do but peers, mentors and social structures too. Therefore, this book is not just for instructors and administrators. It is also about anyone who is responsible for young people.

This book is for parents too. So much of what happens at home has a more significant effect on learning outcomes that what happens at school. The kind of dinner conversation you have with your child; the culture of reading, art, discussion and debate you have at home; the values you transmit to your child; the relationship you model towards technology, spirituality and the environment: these are the real backbone of a child’s education. This book gives parents ideas, contexts, syntheses of educational research and insights from the formal education sector. Educating for the Twenty-First Century: Seven Global Challenges is published by Brill and can be ordered online at www.brill.com

About the Author: Dr Conrad Hughes Campus and Secondary Principal at the International School of Geneva, La Grande Boissiere.

Conrad teaches philosophy and holds a PhD in English literature. He is currently completing a second doctorate at Durham University’s School of Education on how education can  reduce prejudice. His research interests also include 21st Century Education, Critical Thinking, International Education and Assessment. He is the author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. As Director of Education at the International School of Geneva , he led the publication of Guiding Principles for Learning in the 21st Century with UNESCO.

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Press release

New UNESCO Report shows extent of global inequalities in education and calls for greater inclusion as schools re-open

Paris, June 23, 2020 –A new report published today by UNESCO shows the extent of exclusion in education now further exacerbated by Covid-19. In the region, only around a quarter of countries have inclusive education laws covering all learners. Chile and Paraguay are noted for being two of only five countries in the world to have inclusive education laws covering all learners. The 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report shows that inequalities will have deepened during the pandemic: 40% of countries worldwide have not supported learners at risk during the crisis. It calls on the region to foster more resilient and equal societies by concentrating on those being left behind as schools re-group.

“To rise to the challenges of our time, a move towards more inclusive education is imperative”, said the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay. “Rethinking the future of education is all the more important following the Covid-19 pandemic, which further widened and put a spotlight on inequalities. Failure to act will hinder the progress of societies.”  

Exclusion is persistent: This year’s Report, All Means All , is the fourth in the GEM Report annual series, which monitors progress across 209 countries towards the education targets in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. It will be followed by a regional report for Latin America and the Caribbean this October.

The education crisis during Covid-19 was fuelled by deep pre-existing inequalities. Even before the pandemic, almost 12 million children and youth were excluded from education in Latin America and the Caribbean, with poverty the main constraint to access.

Education systems are not adapting to students needs, leaving one in four 15-year-old students globally reporting feeling like outsiders at school; rising to above 30% in the Dominican Republic. The region is one of the most linguistically diverse in the world, but education systems do not always reflect this: In grade 3, students who do not speak the language of the test are 3 times less likely to be able to read a story. Ιn Brazil, Mexico and Peru, there is persistent inequality by indigenous background, even after controlling for social class.

Socio-economic segregation is also persistent: half the students in Chile and Mexico would have to be reassigned schools to achieve a uniform socio-economic mixture. And data from the region suggest that segregation by ethnic origin is even more widespread than segregation by socio-economic status.

Exclusion can be very blatant. Alongside today’s new Report, the GEM Report has launched a new website, PEER* , with descriptions of laws and policies on inclusion in education for every country in the world. PEER shows that many countries still practice segregation in education, which can feed stereotyping, discrimination and alienation: 42% of countries in the region have laws calling for children with disabilities to be educated in separate settings. In practice, not many mainstream primary schools receive students with disabilities; at most 40%, according to the latest comparable data.

While laws on universal free and compulsory basic education have helped reduce child labour, in some countries, such as Paraguay and Peru, child labour is still permitted at age 14, before compulsory education finishes.

Diversity is not sufficiently reflected in education systems. Only seven countries in the region recognize sign language as an official language. Students with disabilities often need adapted infrastructure and materials, but only 29% of schools in the region have made necessary changes. In Costa Rica, about 55% of respondents to a national disability survey reported that education centres were not accessible and lacked ramps, visual and audio alerts, grab bars and other adaptations.

The region is noted for covering linguistic and ethnic minorities in teacher education programmes. In 2016, Peru had 38,000 bilingual teachers, but at least 17,000 new trained teachers are required to meet demand; it now has a National Bilingual Intercultural Education Plan with teacher education at its core. Colombia helps professionalize bilingual teachers and their education. Costa Rica stipulates that indigenous educator training and participation in curricula formulation and implementation should be promoted and facilitated.

Gender is another focus of many pre-service teacher education programmes. Cuba’s Sexuality Education Programme seeks to strengthen teacher education and prevent sexually transmitted infections.

However, more attention needs to be given to determining effective ways to prepare teachers for work in inclusive settings. In São Paulo, Brazil, grade 8 mathematics teachers were more likely to give white students a passing grade than their equally proficient and well-behaved black classmates. In Brazil, Colombia and Mexico over 50% of teachers reported a high need for professional development on teaching students with special needs. 

“Covid-19 has given a real opportunity to think afresh about our education systems. Yet, moving to a world that not only values but welcomes diversity won’t happen overnight,” added Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring Report. “There is an obvious tension between teaching all children under the same roof and creating an environment where students learn best. But, if Covid-19 taught us something, it is that failure to act is not an option; there is scope to do things differently if we put our minds to it.”

There is a chronic lack of quality data on those left behind. Nine countries in the region do not collect education data on children with disabilities in their Education Management Information Systems. Figures on learning are taken from school even if many are not participating. And learning assessments are often too difficult for some of the most marginalised students: three-quarters of students in the region who did no better on multiple choice questions than random guessing were considered proficient in reading.

There are some signs of improvement, however. The number of Latin American countries that incorporated at least one ethnicity question in their census increased from 6 in 1980 to 13 in 2000. Today, all countries in the region except the Dominican Republic have census questions about ethnicity. Improvements are also being made to collect better data on students with disabilities.

There are signs of moves towards inclusion. The Report and its PEER website note many countries using positive, innovative approaches to transition to inclusion. Guatemala applies multigrade teaching either by design or by necessity in rural contexts. Brazil’s ProUni University for All programme uses tax incentives to buy places in private universities for academically qualified poor students. In Cuba, children with disabilities are included in mainstream early childhood development programmes, even in rural areas. Besides legislation, 14 countries have policies to promote racial equality or better targeting of policy to benefit Afro-descendants.

The region is also noted for its strong cross-sectoral social protection schemes addressing people’s intersecting needs, including education. Conditional cash transfer programmes in Latin America since the 1990s have increased education attainment by 0.5 to 1.5 years. The Crece Contigo early childhood programme in Chile coordinates services across education, health and social protection. Colombia ties its social programmes to a poverty index score for each family, which they can consult to see the services they are eligible for.

The report includes a set of key recommendations for the next 10 years launched in a digital campaign, All means All , that will help countries achieve the 2030 inclusive education targets.

For editors

Questions related to Latin America and the Caribbean, please contact Carolina Jerez Henríquez: c.jerez@unesco.org , +56992890175, Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago)

For more information, b-roll, photos, for interviews, videos or animations please contact Kate Redman, k.redman@unesco.org , 0033 6 71 78 62 34

Visit the Report’s electronic press kit containing Report and multimedia materials. [password: AllmeansAll]

The Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) is developed by an independent team and published by UNESCO. It has the official mandate of monitoring progress in meeting the fourth Sustainable Development Goal on education, SDG 4.

The PEER Website will be publicly available from 23 June: https://www.education-profiles.org

Related items

• UNESCO Office in Santiago and Regional Bureau for Education
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

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Higher education in a changing and challenging world

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More students, more providers, more study options – these are a few of the ways higher education has evolved in recent decades. The upcoming World Higher Education Conference (WHEC2022), from 18-20 May, will bring some of the latest trends and challenges in focus to design a roadmap for the future. For this occasion, we look back to identify some megatrends, starting from the first World Conference on Higher Education in 1998 and continuing through the years.

Over the past two decades, higher education has grown – and transformed – in many ways. By 2020, worldwide participation in higher education reached 228 million students, up from 82 million in 1995 . In the Global North, student numbers have stagnated in recent years. For example, in 2006, the Global South went from having a little over half of global enrolments, to reaching three-quarters in 2018.

But, despite this history of growth, major inequalities persist throughout the world. Only 1% of the poorest students aged 25-29 complete four years of higher education compared with 20% of the wealthiest, according to a 2017 survey of 76 countries . The proportion of youth enrolled also ranges from less than 10% in sub-Saharan Africa to almost 80% in Europe and North America.

New opportunities, new challenges

Rapid progress in information and communication technology has also greatly shaped opportunities in higher education. Continuous advances in digital technologies, social media, and mobile devices, are giving learners better access to knowledge and educational content. More recently, artificial intelligence for teaching and learning, virtual augmented reality, simulations, and serious games have further widened the opportunities arising from technology-enabled learning. New interactive pedagogies based on e-learning have also proven their effectiveness.

However, the digital divide has come into sharp focus once again, as COVID-19 disrupted higher education in unprecedented ways. As face-to-face learning stopped in more than 190 countries, many institutions were able to rapidly shift to online learning. However, the limitations were quickly revealed in low-income countries, home to 96% of the 2.9 billion people who have never used the internet. For many disadvantaged students, the move to online learning has diminished prospects for accessing higher education.

Yet, these challenges are occurring in tandem with higher education rising on international development agendas over the past 25 years. In the 1990s, under the Education for All movement, the international community was focused on basic education, and then during the 2000s attention shifted to primary education under the Millennium Development Goals. In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), brought higher education back to the international education agenda, recognizing its importance for all SDGs, and in particular its contribution to SDG-4 on equitable and quality education systems.

UNESCO’s World Higher Education Conference: Equitable access is a growing priority

UNESCO, being the only United Nations’ agency that has a mandate for higher education, convened two world conferences for the sector in 1998 and 2009. The first conference called upon Member States to respond to emerging challenges in higher education and by undertaking vast reforms to address them with urgency and relevance. A decade later, in 2009, the second World Conference demonstrated a commitment by all stakeholders to recognize higher education as a public good to advance research, innovation, and creativity, and as a major force in building inclusive and diverse knowledge societies.

The forthcoming WHEC 2022 to be held in Barcelona from 18 to 20 May 2022 is entitled Reinventing Higher Education for a Sustainable Future . It will highlight the importance of higher education to respond to present global challenges, such as climate change, social inequalities, and conflict, while advocating that higher education opens further to a larger and more diverse student body, including disadvantaged groups.

The WHEC2022 will help to define and prepare a roadmap that is framed by the 2030 Agenda and that is responsive to the challenges faced by humanity and the planet.  The conference calls for ‘breaking away from the traditional models of higher education and opening doors to new, innovative, creative, and visionary conceptions that not only serve current agendas for sustainable development, but also pave the way for future learning communities that overcome barriers, speak to all and are inclusive of all lifelong learners.’

IIEP will be sharing knowledge at the WHEC

For the 2022 edition, IIEP-UNESCO will organize a roundtable to discuss findings from its recent research on flexible learning pathways (FLPs). This type of policy allows higher education systems to adapt to the needs of more diverse learners, offering increased learner choice and eliminating barriers to their access and progression through the system.

Drawing on the experiences of countries that have participated in this collaborative research, the research shows how FLPs are key to achieving the Education 2030 Agenda, which calls for articulated education systems with multiple entry and exit pathways, through the recognition of formal, non-formal and informal learning. The topic is therefore highly relevant for the present and future context of higher education .

IIEP will also participate in a roundtable on data and knowledge production and launch a joint Policy Paper with the UN Refugee Agency on refugees’ access to host countries higher education, bringing into focus policy directions to support the super-disadvantaged and remove barriers to learning.

• Leading for change: Q&A with chief of education planning from Saint Kitts and Nevis 28 May 2024
• IIEP Strategic Debates 24 May 2024
• Education in emergencies: Improving the Education in Emergencies (EiE) data landscape 24 May 2024
• "Higher education needs to adapt to people’s needs": IIEP International Policy Forum

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Transforming education systems: Why, what, and how

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Rebecca winthrop and rebecca winthrop director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development @rebeccawinthrop the hon. minister david sengeh the hon. minister david sengeh minister of education and chief innovation officer - government of sierra leone, chief innovation officer - directorate of science, technology and innovation in sierra leone @dsengeh.

June 23, 2022

Today, the topic of education system transformation is front of mind for many leaders. Ministers of education around the world are seeking to build back better as they emerge from COVID-19-school closures to a new normal of living with a pandemic. The U.N. secretary general is convening the Transforming Education Summit (TES) at this year’s general assembly meeting (United Nations, n.d.). Students around the world continue to demand transformation on climate and not finding voice to do this through their schools are regularly leaving class to test out their civic action skills.      

It is with this moment in mind that we have developed this shared vision of education system transformation. Collectively we offer insights on transformation from the perspective of a global think tank and a national government: the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings brings years of global research on education change and transformation, and the Ministry of Education of Sierra Leone brings on-the-ground lessons from designing and implementing system-wide educational rebuilding.   

This brief is for any education leader or stakeholder who is interested in charting a transformation journey in their country or education jurisdiction such as a state or district. It is also for civil society organizations, funders, researchers, and anyone interested in the topic of national development through education. In it, we answer the following three questions and argue for a participatory approach to transformation:  

• Why is education system transformation urgent now? We argue that the world is at an inflection point. Climate change, the changing nature of work, increasing conflict and authoritarianism together with the urgency of COVID recovery has made the transformation agenda more critical than ever. 
• What is education system transformation? We argue that education system transformation must entail a fresh review of the goals of your system – are they meeting the moment that we are in, are they tackling inequality and building resilience for a changing world, are they fully context aware, are they owned broadly across society – and then fundamentally positioning all components of your education system to coherently contribute to this shared purpose.  
• How can education system transformation advance in your country or jurisdiction? We argue that three steps are crucial: Purpose (developing a broadly shared vision and purpose), Pedagogy (redesigning the pedagogical core), and Position (positioning and aligning all components of the system to support the pedagogical core and purpose). Deep engagement of educators, families, communities, students, ministry staff, and partners is essential across each of these “3 P” steps.    

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Our aim is not to provide “the answer” — we are also on a journey and continually learning about what it takes to transform systems — but to help others interested in pursuing system transformation benefit from our collective reflections to date. The goal is to complement and put in perspective — not replace — detailed guidance from other actors on education sector on system strengthening, reform, and redesign. In essence, we want to broaden the conversation and debate.

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A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. He can be found at www.petermdewitt.com . Read more from this blog .

11 Critical Issues Facing Educators in 2023

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For several years, I wrote a list of 10, 11, or even 15 critical issues facing education at the end of a year to give a glimpse into issues to consider for the following year. Then COVID happened and blew my last list of issues up. Why? Because it never occurred to me to put a pandemic on the list of critical issues in 2019.

We have educational issues to consider every year that also highlight what teachers, leaders, and students face. Education has often been a dumping ground for criticism of educators who are tasked with teaching children content, feeding them when they come in hungry because they live in poverty or are homeless, and, at the same time, practicing school safety drills because students and teachers have to prepare for fending off the next school shooter.

Television shows and movies poke fun at educators and school, politicians have “plans” about how they can do it better, although the large majority of them ever step foot in a school since they graduated. During all of that “entertainment,” educators are supposed to just go in and do their jobs for the love of education and children.

And that’s exactly what they do.

11 Issues for 2023

These issues were chosen based on the number of times they came up in stories on Education Week or in workshops and coaching sessions that I do in my role as a leadership coach and workshop facilitator.

For full disclosure, some of the issues will be difficult to read, but they are the reality for teachers, leaders, staff, and students around the country. With that being said, the issues on the list are not exhaustive, and as always, if you have an issue to add to the list, find me on social media and let me know which ones are a top priority for you.

Guns – Recent research from the Centers for Disease Control shows that firearms are the leading cause of death for children. This research study cites the CDC report and says there were 45,222 total firearm-related deaths in the United States in 2020, and around 10% of those were children and teens . Just to be intentional, because people will accuse me of a political argument, what this has to do with schools is the fact that the children who are killed or injured are our students. These deaths and this topic have an enormous impact on schools.

Politics in education – In the last couple of years, school leaders and teachers have had to fight rumors about teaching critical race theory, and we know states like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Florida have governors or secretaries of education who want to ban conversations around equity, race, and social-emotional learning. Politics have always been a part of education, but the last few years have brought an increased level of it into our classrooms and schools.

Social-emotional learning – Critics believe that social-emotional learning is about indoctrinating students, which is wholly inaccurate. Social-emotional learning is about teaching students about empathy and how to self-regulate their behavior so they can better deal with stress and anxiety. This will continue to be an issue playing out in schools, and we will see work by researchers like Marc Brackett and his team at Yale be at the forefront of this issue.

The Flu – I’m not putting this on the list because I didn’t anticipate COVID in 2019. It’s on the list because, according to the CDC , there are millions of children each year who get the flu. Currently, we know that the respiratory virus RSV has affected millions of children under the age of 5, which does impact preschool- and kindergarten-age children, as well as their siblings or grandparents. Between the flu and RSV, schools will continue to see an increase in student absenteeism. Considering the COVID learning-loss debate that hit schools after COVID, that discourse will only continue. Here’s a recent story written by my Ed Week colleague Evie Blad covering student absences.

De-implementation – This is not as self-serving as it may seem. I say that because I have done a great deal of research on the topic of de-implementation and written a book about it . It’s on the list because it is a topic that school leaders are exploring. No longer should the conversation about workload be one that we push to the side, and de-implementing ineffective practices is a way to make the workload more manageable. Here is a YouTube video with 5 areas to consider when de-implementing.

Substitute teachers – In many states, it is no longer required that substitute teachers have an associate degree. There are states that have lowered the requirement to a high school diploma, yet there is still a shortage of substitute teachers. The lesser standard also brings into question the ability of substitute teachers to cover important core content for students.

Poverty – According to the National Center for Children Living in Poverty, there are 11 million children in that situation. Countless schools around the country are tasked not only with educating students but also feeding them breakfast and lunch as well. During COVID, school leaders, teachers, and staff made bag lunches for these students on a daily basis.

Teacher shortage – My Ed Week colleague Madeline Will recently wrote a story highlighting just how bad the teacher shortage is in the United States . However, this is not just a problem in the United States. Countries around the world are experiencing the same issue. Please check out this article by Ed Week reporter Caitlynn Peetz for the sobering statistics behind this issue.

Teacher-prep programs – Not only should there be conversations about how colleges and universities are preparing our nation’s teachers, but a big issue for 2023 is how those same colleges and universities are recruiting prospective teachers to enter the profession in the first place.

Tutoring programs – With a lot of coverage about COVID learning loss, tutoring as a means of “catching kids up” is going to be a big topic in 2023. Education Week is planning to do a series of articles and provide research on the topic, and I will be moderating a conversation on the topic for A Seat at the Table in 2023.

A love for learning – I know this sounds hokey, but it’s not. There are countless teachers, leaders, and staff trying to inspire a love for learning for themselves and their students. Too often, education is seen as a system of compliance rather than an institution of inspiration and creativity. We need to change that in 2023. Will the political rhetoric allow us to do that?

The opinions expressed in Peter DeWitt’s Finding Common Ground are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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