The pull of the past

Of course, there have been numerous changes to schools since their inception – who has access to them, class sizes, teaching styles, discipline, uniforms – the list could go on. But it’s remarkable that so much has remained the same. Look at any picture of a classroom from 100 years ago and the rows of desks will be familiar; look at a timetable and the core subjects will be strikingly similar. For many of us, school is an institution that binds us with a broadly common experience. People often have a view on the subjects they liked or disliked, their favourite teacher, the notion of school holidays lasting forever.

The discourse surrounding the future of schooling is discomforting because it deviates from this shared knowledge, because the future is so unknown, and because schooling is so important. But we have a better idea now than before. As shocking as the pandemic was, Andreas Schleicher’s proclamation that it was a “great moment” for learning isn’t as contradictory as it sounds. It forced us to think on our feet, to experience what schooling might be outside its usual confines of physical location and traditional structures.

When schools reopened in 2020, routines largely snapped back into place. However, the question of what might need to shift for the longer-term persists. Climate change and the technological revolution are challenging many of the long-held truths we once relied on.

Framing the present

To imagine the future, you have to understand the present.

We asked young people, teachers, parents, policymakers and specialists what they thought schooling should achieve for students by the time they finish their formal education. The most common answer was personal growth, followed by employability. Perhaps surprisingly, academic success was mentioned the least. However, three quarters of the people we spoke to agreed that exam results are still considered the primary measure of whether a child’s schooling has been a success.

The disparity between what people want education to achieve and how it is measured raises significant concerns. Interviewees were quick to seize on the contradiction.

What’s more, no one we spoke to believed that schooling is entirely achieving what they think it should be. The most common reasons given for this were:

• Not enough qualified teachers, together with a lack of support and training in some instances.
• The relevance of education: Both in terms of developing the skills needed for employment, as well as connections between schools and wider communities.
• Changing expectations of what schools should provide.
• A gap between curriculum objectives and what children are learning in the classroom.
• Infrastructure limitations: From unsafe buildings to no internet access.
• Not enough funding.
• Crises: from conflict to flooding.

This will not be news to the education community, who are working around the world to move towards more effective, student-centric learning for all – as many people interviewed recognised. However, addressing this is not a quick fix. These dialogues revealed that all too often, the spirit of reform can get lost in in the complexity of implementation.

Near future changes

Thinking about the future is generally easier over a short-term – we can dip our toe into the water rather than jumping straight in. According to the people we interviewed, technology will be the biggest driver of change in education over the next decade.

Views on the positive aspects of technology in education over the next ten years included personalised learning, opportunities for innovating teaching and learning, better continuous assessment and more support and professional development opportunities for teachers. Many countries are already beginning to realise these.

Nonetheless, concerns that technology could create more disparity between countries and contexts are, and must continue to be, part of this dialogue. One interviewee described the infrastructural challenges that need addressing before she can even contemplate technology playing a role in learning in her current context: “I am sitting there in the middle of June and it's a swelteringly hot day outside. All of a sudden, there's electricity load shedding. The fans are off, the class is overcrowded. It's impossible for me to sit there for ten minutes...”

Additionally, regardless of whether education is ready, schools can’t divorce themselves from what’s happening outside: “We’re not allowed to use our phones at school” says 16-year-old Nikki. But they use them everywhere else. “I saw a bunch of people protesting online [about an oil-drilling project] and did my own research and I was like, ‘oh, this is not a good thing.’ School didn’t talk about it – so we kept going like our lives were supposed to be unaffected. We’re sheltered at school and then we go out in the world and get hit by a bunch of life stuff.”

The dual escalation of global issues and technology raises questions about what students should learn in school. They need skills to deal with conflict and climate change, grapple with artificial intelligence, and be ready for future jobs.

Alternative futures

There is evidently no single answer regarding what ideal schooling might resemble in the longer-term. However, when we asked teachers, students, parents, policymakers and education specialists what they thought it could look like in 2040, there were interesting parallels. Take these two quotes as an example, one from Rwanda, and one from the UAE, shared just one day apart.

"Hybrid incorporated with remote learning. A project-based, vocational kind of education where students can interact with their communities and spend less time in schools.... it's hard for them to visualise life in their communities. That would be a very innovative approach that would help to reform education.” (NGO, Rwanda)

"Schools should be run on a hybrid model of some type, but I don't think schooling should go completely remote. It would also be good to see more emphasis on being globally aware and community conscious, and I hope it will be much more industry focused.” (Education consultant, UAE)

Post-pandemic, the fact that many people are expecting more hybrid learning is no surprise. But hybrid didn’t just refer to place; it involved almost every aspect of education.