Realizing Education for All in the Digital Age

Abstract

Education is a key driver for sustainable development (UNESCO 2018). The entire global community has been determined to ensure that all human beings can fulfill their potential in dignity and equality; to protect the planet so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations; to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives; to foster peaceful, just, and inclusive societies through a global partnership for sustainable development (United Nations General Assembly 2015). Education plays fundamental roles in facing these challenges and transforming our world. In other words, inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all are indispensable elements for achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); failing to accomplish these objectives is unacceptable. Based on this recognition, all stakeholders, including Group of Twenty (G20) member countries, have been working together and are committed to providing quality education to meet the basic learning needs of all people. This work has accelerated, especially since the World Conference on Education for All, held in 1990 in Jomtien, Thailand, where education was reconfirmed as a human right. However, there are currently 64 million children of primary school age, 61 million of lower secondary school age, and 138 million of upper secondary age who are out of school (UNESCO Institute for Statistics). These are children and youth excluded and marginalized for various reasons—poverty, disability, gender, ethnicity, other sociocultural barriers, and conflicts, among others. Poor quality of education further aggravates public trust in education. This leaves, alarmingly, 617 million children—more than half of children in the world at primary and lower-secondary education—failing to achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2017). Inclusion, equity, and quality, with an emphasis on learning outcomes, are priorities and intertwined issues that must tackled. Moreover, education is expected to prepare learners to realize their potential in their respective environments, where work and life are influenced by globalized economic and social activities, social and cross-national mobility, and the rapid progress of technologies. In this trend, work and life need to be adjusted to foster sustainability in the foresight of Industry 4.0, Society 5.0, and the emergence of artificial intelligence.