In the new Global Report on Education Monitoring, prepared under the auspices of UNESCO, authors analyze how education can contribute to progress in the achievement of the entire range of global ends set on the agenda in the area of sustainable development for the period of up to 2030. The experts conclude that education needs serious reforms.
The report, entitled “Education in the interests of people and the planet”, notes that education programs should pay much more attention to environmental issues. “We need to radically change our understanding of the role of education in the process of global development, as it has a significant impact on bоth the well-being of individuals and the future of our planet as a whole,” said Director General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, presenting the latest document at the headquarters of the organization in Paris.
The UNESCO chief stressed that the education system should ensure the protection of minority languages and cultures, which are bearers of vital information about the functioning of ecosystems. At the same time, according to the report, 40 percent of the pupils and students in the world are taught in a language they do not understand.
The report also refers to the need to train professionals with a higher level of skills to meet the needs of the current economic situation in the world, in particular, those associated with rapid automation: “If current trends continue, by 2020, the shortage of specialists with appropriate higher education will be 40 million people.”
