iDas - Info - WEF: Catalysing Education 4.0

Catalysing Education 4.0: Investing in the Future of Learning for a Human-Centric RecoveryThere is a unique window of opportunity to invest in Education 4.0: an approach to reimagining education in a way that is inclusive, focuses on a broad range of skills to prepare learners for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and leverages technological and pedagogical innovation to put learners at the centre of learning.

There is a unique window of opportunity to invest in Education 4.0: an approach to reimagining education in a way that is inclusive, focuses on a broad range of skills to prepare learners for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and leverages technological and pedagogical innovation to put learners at the centre of learning. Global inequities in childhood education — compounded by a COVID-19 pandemic that has shuttered schools for an estimated 1.6 billion children, as well as rapid technological change that is sure to transform the nature of work for the next generation —further underline the need to push learning beyond the pre-pandemic "business as usual".

In Catalysing Education 4.0, developed in consultation with leading education experts from the public, private and educational sectors, we estimate that investment in critical skills for the future such as collaborative problem-solving could add an additional $2.54 trillion in increased productivity to the global economy, with highest relative gains in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. To unlock this transformation, the report highlights three key investment areas in education, including: new assessment mechanisms; adoption of new learning technologies; and empowerment of the teaching workforce.

To realize the promise of Education 4.0, stakeholders from all parts of society have a role to play – from governments and non-governmental agencies, to businesses, investors and educators, to parents and caregivers as well as learners themselves. By putting front and centre the economic case for upgrading existing education systems, we hope this report will complement other efforts in supporting a growing movement to improve education for all.

WEF_Catalysing_Education_4.0_2022.pdf

The World Economic Forum’s Education 4.0 Framework

Investing in education 4.0: key opportunity areas

The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to rethink our approach to global educational investment. In the discussion of the pandemic’s impact on the adult workforce, it is understood that COVID-19 has led to an accelerated transformation of the labour market; of office space; and of how, where, and when work is done. Childhood and young adult education are no different. Currently, educational investment – in developing economies in particular – is attracting relatively little capital from the private sector, blended finance or even multilateral development finance institutions. At $5 trillion, the global education sector accounts for about 6% of global GDP, yet attracted only about $300 billion in investments in 2020. This is less than one-tenth of the investment in the comparablysized global healthcare sector. Similarly, the total cumulative volume of public-private ‘blended/ impact’ investments related to UN SDG 4 over the past decade (2011-2020) stood at a modest $1.5 billion in 2021. When compared to nearly $16 billion in global healthcare, educational blended investment appears to be a market still very much in its infancy . The largest and fastest-growing investments around education, by far, have been in education technology, or ‘edtech’, and are projected to attract about $404 billion of capital globally by 2025. This push arrives notably amid increased recognition of the role of technology-enabled and remote learning during the pandemic. At the same time, the education sector provides additional opportunities for job creation. While 85 million teachers are currently employed worldwide, an additional 69 million teachers will need to be recruited in the coming years to reach SDG 4. Each of these roles must be supplemented with additional roles in education leadership, specialists and complementary education support roles, which will provide additional opportunities for job creation in the sector.

Importantly, catalysing a new, more comprehensive investment strategy for education will require consensus among a wide range of stakeholders on what high-quality childhood education can and should actually look like. The Forum’s Education 4.0 framework – developed by an intellectually diverse community of education experts, policy-makers, civil society and business leaders – provides a unified vision for childhood education that focuses on skills of the future, innovative pedagogies and learning experiences that promote inclusive and learner driven education. Realizing this vision and making universal access to Education 4.0 a reality is a longterm endeavour that can, and must, start today. Accordingly, this report highlights three key opportunity areas which have been evaluated to offer significant economic and social returns on investment for unlocking Education 4.0 over the coming years: new assessment mechanisms, adoption of new learning technologies and empowering the education workforce.

Education and SkillsThe World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.