Future education

Do markets worry about it? Or do they care only about the “acquisition of skills”? 

The speed with which changes occur in our societies, particularly those due to the techno-scientific revolution (sparking new interactions and mutual influences between science and society) and the digital revolution that followed it (creating the need to correctly interpret not only texts but also – and particularly– images), has created a sense of urgency regarding access to, reach and quality of education at all levels.

Education is the best intergenerational learning mechanism that human beings have ever invented. Memory, culture and hopes for a better world are the essential focus of this form of communication that justifies the advances and regressions of civilisation. However, there has been constant controversy regarding educational practices, from the legitimacy of its appropriation by sects or elites to the reasons for the segmentation of quality, from which exclusion and inequality stem and are perpetuated. Generally speaking, there is still little social mobility through the generations. As such, we must consider what the future of education will look like, knowing that the worst possible situation is one that is the result of walking blindly into the future, as if fate commanded human history. Around 200 years ago, Condorcet stated that “advances in the sciences ensure progress in the art of education and this subsequently speeds up the progress of science”. He believed that education was the main form of human improvement and that there were no limits to our hopes, as outlined in his memorable Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind. However, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then. Are markets worried about education? Or are they essentially concerned about the “acquisition of skills”? “In the political sphere, and in the media, education is still considered a “priority”. However, we know that social pressures push public money towards health, housing, employment… Recently, there was an international conference in Rome about “Future Education”, organised by the World Academy of Art and Science, the University of Rome and the World University Consortium to discuss this paradox. Besides stating that the existence of “time” is where the essence of freedom lies, it became clear that future education needs to be based on observation, interrogation, imagination and experimentation, as well as the ability to read and “write” digital images. The key factors of future education will certainly be curiosity and openness, interpersonal relationships and complexity. This will be the way of educating in order to live a meaningful life, exercise citizenship freely and obtain the means of subsistence.

by João Caraça