Higher education institutions have a significant potential role in promoting lifelong learning. New research from the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Shanghai Open University shows both the advances being made and the limitations and challenges that continue to prevent this potential being fully realized, writes Edith Hammer
Part-time study, online
learning, micro-credentials, flexible pathways, community outreach – these are
just a few ways to support lifelong learning in the higher education sector. While
traditionally associated with formal education, universities and other higher
education institutions (HEIs) have become paramount in promoting lifelong
learning for diverse groups of learners. As traditional hubs of knowledge, they
can embrace lifelong learning as a catalyst for transformation, supporting
reskilling and upskilling, social equity and sustainable development. Within
this context, two questions arise: What is the role of HEIs in promoting
lifelong learning in society? And what does it take for HEIs to become lifelong
learning institutions?
Adult education has a critical role to play in combatting climate change, not only in supporting changes in behaviour but also, and much more crucially, in giving people the means to challenge, change and galvanize political will, argues Paul Stanistreet
You know that moment
in a disaster movie when a TV anchor conveys the terrible news that the world
is facing a catastrophic threat and hope is all but lost. Well, it happened
yesterday for real. The funny thing is, hardly anyone noticed.
4 April 2022 may go
down as one of the darkest days in the late history of humanity, a marker not
only of our inhuman treatment of one another, the harrowing cruelty of war, but
also of our failure to act on climate change, despite a mountain of evidence
and the starkest warnings yet from climate scientists that we are passing the
point of no return when it comes to staving off its worst effects. Continue reading →
The Futures of Education report is a chance to depart from our current ‘unsustainable path’ in education, and build new relationships, with each other, with the planet, and with technology, writes David Atchoarena
On 10 November 2021, the much-anticipated
UNESCO report, Reimagining our
futures together: A new social contract for education, was launched in
Paris at the organization’s General Conference. It was prepared by the
International Commission on the Futures of Education under the leadership of
Her Excellency Madame Sahle-Work Zewde, President of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia.
The report follows in the tradition of the Faure
Commission’s 1972 report, Learning to Be:
The World of Education Today and Tomorrow, and the Delors Commission’s
report of 1996, Learning: The Treasure
Within. Due to the rapid changes in our globalized world and the rising
importance of education and lifelong learning therein, this year’s report could
not come at a better time. Global challenges such as the
climate crisis, technological and demographic change, and inequalities further
exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic require urgent action. The world is at a
turning point, the members of the International Commission on the Futures of Education argue: we can continue on the current ‘unsustainable path’ or
radically change course. How we respond to these challenges will determine what
future lies ahead. Continue reading →
In the post-pandemic world, institutions of higher education must find holistic approaches to re-connect with society around them, integrating a lifelong learning approach into their core missions of teaching, research and service, argue Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon
The disruption caused by COVID-19 to the everyday life of citizens around the world over the past six months has made it clear that that the future will entail new definitions of normal life. Most dramatically affected is the formal education system, from primary and secondary to tertiary.
What also became
obvious is that local leaders, supported by local communities, found local
solutions to deal with the virus, solutions that relied on local experiences,
local knowledge and local resources. As schools shut down, and with digital
access in many communities weak, mobile smartphones, small study circles and
‘travelling’ tutors were appropriately galvanized to support the learning of
young and old alike, outside classrooms and campuses. Suddenly, the
compartments of life, study, work and leisure became meaningless divisions, and
learning, studying, cooking, caring and chatting were inter-mingled, almost
seamlessly and effortlessly. Continue reading →
The current crisis need not result in a further erosion of social and economic rights and the widening of inequalities – it also represents an opportunity to appeal to global solidarity and rehumanize lifelong learning, writes Maren Elfert
Educators around
the world are alarmed about the consequences of the COVIID-19 crisis. A lively
debate has emerged on what the world might look like in the aftermath of the
crisis in relation to education and more broadly. I would like to add my voice
to those who emphasize that our perspective must be bigger than COVID-19 and
that we should take the crisis as an opportunity to learn from past mistakes
and rethink our approach to education. As a recent article argued in relation
to schools, ‘When the Covid crisis finally ends, schools must never return to
normal’ (Sweeney, 2020), referring to the need to abandon harmful practices such
as deprofessionalizing teachers, excessive testing and the culture of rankings.
This discussion, of course, is related to how we organize our society and how
we deal with the larger environmental, economic, social and political crisis of
which COVID-19 is a symptom.
To paraphrase
Charles Dickens, there is potential in this crisis for the best of times or the
worst of times. The crisis could offer us an opportunity to rethink and
innovate our societies or to move further down the path of dehumanization of
education in terms of ‘one size fits all teaching’ in schools and lifelong
learning as a market commodity. Among the questions and issues that are raised
in the current debates are: In light of the public health and ensuing economic
crisis, will global inequalities in access to
education widen, disrupting progress towards
Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) (UNESCO/IIEP, 2020)? Distance education is being pushed by
corporate interests (Williamson,
2020), but it bears
the risk of further marginalizing disadvantaged students who do not have access
to technology and who depend on teacher-student relationships (Srivastava, 2020; Parramore, 2020). For many students, school represents a place to
socialize and often get the only meal of the day (UNICEF, 2020). Higher education institutions around the world are
preparing for significant drops of international students, and quite a number
of them will probably not survive. Will this lead to a reconsideration of
education as a market model, or just to even more tightened competition? Some
thinkers, such as the Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben (2020a; 2020b), are concerned about the de-humanization of human
beings as a consequence of ‘social distancing’. Arjun Appadurai, in a recent
keynote panel of UNESCO’s ‘Futures of Education’ initiative, warned of the risk
that education might be considered unimportant in these times of crisis (UNESCO, 2020). This might translate into cuts to education. Continue reading →
The COVID-19 crisis obliges us to think deeply and creatively about the future of our societies and the role of education in shaping them, writes David Atchoarena
Much has been said and written already about how educational institutions are responding to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically through online and distance learning. This is important and UNESCO is playing a critical role, with UIL making a significant contribution. Beyond the emergency response, it is equally necessary to reflect on the world that will emerge from the crisis and the role of lifelong learning in supporting social recovery and in shaping a sustainable future.
The crisis not only raises important technical
and practical issues about the delivery of education, it also poses critical
questions about the kind of society we want to live in, our approach to
economic growth, our tolerance of economic and social inequalities, globally
and within nations, and our relationship to nature. Continue reading →
As COVID-19 closes schools, colleges and universities around the world, it is critical that educational solutions, such as online and distance learning, do not widen the digital divide, argues Christiana Nikolitsa-Winter
The
COVID-19 developments have urgent implications for educational institutions
worldwide, and ask serious and urgent questions of education ministers, leaders,
teachers and learners.
As closure
notices go up outside schools and other places of formal and non-formal
education, the challenge we face is how to ensure the continuity of learning
through a period of unprecedented disruption.
We need to
offer learners robust, innovative solutions relatively fast and to create opportunities
for online teaching platforms to reach all, rather than only a small
group of learners. Continue reading →
As we mark International Day of Education, David Atchoarena urges countries to redouble their efforts to ensure no one’s right to education is denied
Today is International
Day of Education, a moment not only to celebrate education’s
powerful contribution to sustainable human prosperity, progress and peace, but
also to assert its wider value – as a human right and as an important public
good.
It is an
opportune time to consider both what we have achieved in realizing the right to
education and how far we have to go to ensure this right is realized for every
woman, man and child, wherever they live in the world, whatever their
background or personal circumstances.
The global
challenges we face are enormous. Some 258 million children and youth still do
not attend school, four million children and youth refugees are out of school,
and 773 million adults around the world cannot read or write, most of them
women. In too many cases, disadvantaged and marginalized groups remain excluded
from participation in adult learning and education, as the new UNESCO
Global Report on Adult Learning and Education points out. Their
right to education is being denied. This is unacceptable. Continue reading →
The fourth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education represents a wake-up call to countries to do more to advance participation in adult education – we need to heed it, saysDavid Atchoarena
Published by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), the new Global Report on Adult Learning and Education– GRALE 4 – is a landmark publication in the field of adult learning and education (ALE) for the international education policy community.
The report charts UNESCO Member States’ progress against the commitments made at the sixth International Conference on Adult Education in 2009 and codified in the Belém Framework for Action, with a special emphasis, in this report, on participation in ALE. The story it tells is in some ways a positive one – more than half of responding countries reported an increase in overall participation between 2015 and 2018 – but the overwhelming message is that participation is still far too low, and that progress, overall, is insufficient, particularly among disadvantaged groups. Investment too is far from where it needs to be, with one in five countries reporting spending less than 0.5% of their education budgets on ALE and a further 14% spending less than 1%. Continue reading →
Last week, the world marked the International
Day for the Eradication of Poverty, an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment
to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 – to end poverty in all its forms
everywhere – and to highlight the complex, multidimensional nature of the
challenges we face in achieving it.
Education is not a silver bullet when it comes
to ending poverty, but it has a crucial role to play, both in securing SDG 1
and in fulfilling the commitment made by Member States in signing up to the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: to leave no one behind.
UNESCO believes that the fight against poverty
demands the strengthening of individuals’ capacities through education, which
represents a source not only of employment but also of pride, dignity and
agency. As Audrey Azoulay, the Director General of UNESCO, observes, ‘for each
year a girl spends in the classroom, her future income will increase by 10 to
20 per cent’. Continue reading →
