Education

Innohubs Sustainable Development Goal 4 is that every one of its 193 member states spends 4-6% of GDP and/or 15-20% of total public expenditure on education by 2030. t’s growing because there are more young people to be educated. But also because the level of education among the global population is increasing. By 2015, 91% of children in developing regions were enrolled, up from 83% in 2000 — an increase of 43 million children. The OECD evaluates 72 national school systems using the PISA targets, testing 15 year olds on science, mathematics, reading and problem-solving. It estimates that if every child met the targets, the GDP of upper-middle-income countries would be 16% higher over the next 80 years. The GDP of lower-middle-income countries would be on average 28% higher over the next 80 years.Since 1970, there has been a massive expansion in tertiary education around the world. As universities have become more accessible, enrolment has soared. On average, 36% of today’s young adults in OECD countries are expected to graduate at least once from tertiary education before they are 30.The greatest expansion has taken place in Asia. Korea has the highest proportion of graduates: 67.7% of 25-34 year olds have been through tertiary education.
Technology is transforming how we live, work, play and think. And it’s happening more quickly, and on a larger scale, than at any point in human history …

Education needs to equip today’s young people with the skills to thrive in tomorrow’s world. Even if we don’t know what it looks like yet.Computers can not only be programmed to fulfil many human tasks, but learn how to do things for themselves, applying their processing power to massive datasets. Within just a few years, developments in technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and 3D printing will transform most occupations.According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Survey, “a wide range of occupations will require a higher degree of cognitive abilities — such as creativity, logical reasoning and problem sensitivity — as part of their core skill set. More than half of these do not yet do so today, or only to a much smaller extent”

 “Half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055.”
Less than 5% of occupations can be automated completely, but 60% could see 30% of their constituent activities automated.

This is a very different world to the one our schools and universities were designed to serve. Formal education came into being around the time of the first Industrial Revolution, and early schools were less about improving children’s minds than producing a punctual, obedient workforce for the new factories. As a conveyor belt for sorting, training and disciplining future workers, they were a kind of factory themselves.“If you look at early images of the factory and early images of the school room, there’s not a lot of difference,” says sociologist and education specialist John Holm at SocioDesign in India. “The children are in rows, they’re facing front and they’re looking unhappy.” We need to reshape it for the 21st century.