[RE]LEARN 2020 - The Learning Innovation Festival

In the context of COVID-19, the United Nations has raised the urgency of "taking bold steps now to create inclusive, resilient and quality education systems fit for the future", focusing action on four key areas. One, to ensure that learning is not interrupted for anyone. Two, to prioritize education in public budgets. Three, to make a greater effort to reach the most disadvantaged children, putting equity and inclusion at the center. And four, to update education systems, in line with the 2030 Agenda (SDGs) and the Incheon Declaration.
The desire to build an up-to-date education system has been a constant in the long tradition of pedagogical renewal that has been raging in many societies for more than a century, despite all the obstacles that have been and still are. From Dewey and Montessori to today’s champions for the future of education. The ultimate goal: the full whole development of each girl and boy, to bring out the best in each person and thus contribute to building an inclusive, just and prosperous society and sustainable development. But in the 21st century context, this goal must be contextualized with the global challenges we are facing: increasing inequalities, populism and fake news, polarization and nuclear risk, global warming, and technological disruption.

We need a quality education that equips young people to answer those challenges. Recognition of the efforts of teachers and schools during the pandemic calls on governments to support and train them for the 21st century education that is needed, and to facilitate their work. This requires concrete and widespread support and training actions and long-term stable policies. To transform education systems for them to be fit for the future requires policies that go beyond a four-years legislature, with clear and shared goals and criteria, participatory procedures, cooperative work, clear change protocols to train schools and teachers, and measures that make this possible. Of course, all this calls for prioritizing education in financing decisions, with an unequivocal commitment to equity and inclusion.

As Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of United Nations recently said, “As the world faces unsustainable levels of inequality, we need education – the great equalizer – more than ever”.