In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. As UNESCO is one of the founding partners of #LearningPlanet, we join them in this celebration on 24 January 2022, the fourth International Day of Education, with a programme of dedicated events created by the #LearningPlanet team along with our 250+ Festival partners.
A key topic of the Festival is New Narratives for Education, a subject that aligns with the theme of this year’s International Day of Education: Changing Course, Transforming Education.
This theme is addressed in detail in UNESCO’s recent global Futures of Education report, in which they state, ‘Transforming the future requires an urgent rebalancing of our relationships with each other, with nature as well as with technology.’ The report recognises that:
- Our world is at a turning point.
- Knowledge and learning are the basis for renewal and transformation.
- We need a new social contract for education that can repair past injustices while transforming the future.
The report also provides a number of high level recommendations on:
THE PLANET AND THE ENVIRONMENT – If being educated means living unsustainably, we need to recalibrate our notions of what education should do. We must relearn our interdependencies and our human place and agency in a more-than-human world.
TECHNOLOGY – Curricula should support teachers and students to act together on technology and help determine how it is used. Digital technologies should aim to support –and not replace – teachers and schools
and
EDUCATION AS A PUBLIC ENDEAVOUR – We need to support public education that occurs in a public space, promotes public interests, and is accountable to all. Markets and commercialization cannot be permitted to impede on the achievement of equitable education for all.
How do we actually do this? The report calls for :
A worldwide collaborative research programme that welcomes the contributions of all the diverse actors, sectors, and cultures represented around the world.
A renewed commitment to global collaboration and more equitable cooperation among state and non-state actors at local, national, and international levels.
Everyone – students, teachers, parents, school leadership, government policymakers, and civil society – to pitch in and help make these transformations a reality in their communities, countries and regions.
This is exactly where the #LearningPlanet comes in:
with its ecosystem of global pioneers, leaders, changemakers and youth, that are collectively addressing complex challenges and co-creating solutions that no organisation alone could achieve,
by creating and animating a ‘middle ground’ for these diverse stakeholders, from government organisations to grassroots actors, to interact, create and scale their initiatives, and
Through the #LearningPlanet Festival, uniting thousands of people from around the globe and via its programme sessions dedicated to New Narratives for Education and World Tours to tune in and create dialogue between local initiatives from Asia, Africa, MENA, Europe and across the Americas.
You can access the full report here:
If you’ve not already done so, get your free #LearningPlanet Festival ticket and don’t miss these sessions where we’ll be addressing this very topic
24 Jan, 9h CET – New Narratives for Learning in the 21st Century – Part 1
24 Jan, 15h CET – New Narratives for Learning in the 21st Century – Part 2
26 Jan, 11h CET – Co-Constructing Futures of Education
26 Jan, 17h CET – The 2021 UNESCO Report on the Future of Education: Pros and Cons
