In light of the September 2022 Transforming Education Summit, conversations are proliferating not only around what makes an education “good”, what it is for, and how to evolve from educational models that prevail today to a model that meets the needs of today and the future. The quality or value of education is often judged on metrics such as employment rates, percentage of GDP dedicated to education, or percentage of people who count formal educational attainment as a key factor in obtaining employment. 

Yet educational systems focused primarily on producing labor-ready workers have proven largely incapable of addressing the ills and challenges most troubling our societies. An educational system that seeks to release the intellectual and moral capacity of students would focus on very different kinds of aims and objectives. 

An educational system of this kind would train individuals how to identify, address, and eliminate root causes of inequality. It would equip them to recognize and overcome injustice. It would prepare them to build societies that foster compassion, kindness, and respect. It would reorient society to view learning as a lifelong endeavor. 

Such an educational system could be measured by its ability to inculcate a concern about the wellbeing of all in society and generate action to address such concerns. It would aim to transform the individual and the community to live more harmoniously with nature, to ensure that we value and honor the role that teachers have to play in this process. 

The purpose of education, in essence, needs to be rooted in releasing the skills and capacities of each individual to contribute to the building of flourishing communities. Global educational systems guided by this principle would honor the nobility that is inherent in every human being because this is at the heart of the type of societies we wish to build. 

The challenges facing our educational systems are real. To give just one example, UNESCO estimates that 60 million more teachers will be needed to achieve the goals of SDG 4. This is staggering. It is indicative of the fundamental level of change that needs to take place as we consider the future of education.  

As the world strives to recover from, Covid, a deeply disruptive global event and seeks to answer profound questions about its future arrangements, it is also natural that questions are asked about the future of education. What does the future of education look like? Crisis can bring out solidarity and empathy. Yet, we know this is not necessarily an automatic process. If we want to live in cooperative societies, we have to intentionally equip ourselves to do so. We have witnessed how external shocks tend to reinforce rather than reduce inequities. If we want equity, we have to train ourselves to build it. The nature of the future is that it is uncertain. Having a learning mindset may assist us to grow from past experience, innovate and adopt creativity and flexibility.  

If sustainable and thriving societies are at the heart of our aspirations, the capacities needed to establish those societies must be at the core of our educational imperatives. The societies we yearn to create do not just happen as a natural consequence of more access to material resources. Were this the case, the world’s wealthiest nations would be paragons of equality, justice, sustainability, and social cohesion. In this connection, at a moment when the international community is contemplating a series of international fora called for by the Secretary-General, questions abound as to how education and lifelong learning will figure into these Summits. 

Perhaps these fora and summits can be viewed in terms of a process to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the foundational role of education to build ever advancing societies now and for the future. It is an opportunity to ensure that we give thought to educational processes conducive to a global governance structure that meets the geopolitical challenges of the day. An effective governance structure depends on individuals with abilities to consult, cooperate and  achieve true consensus. It requires those who can act in solidarity with one another. If we are moving towards creating a new social contract for education, let us do so with a united vision on what a good education comprises. 

Liliane Nkunzimana is a Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations

Rilli Lappalainen is the Founder and Chair of Bridge 47 and the Director of Sustainable Development at Fingo