people and planet

5
Cities affect education planning....................................................................................... 116
Education has a positive influence on cities............................................................... 118
Education and knowledge can contribute to inequality in cities...................... 121
Education can influence urban planning...................................................................... 124
A city can transform by placing education and lifelong learning at its heart....126
Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 129
In addition to the areas highlighted in the preamble to
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – people,
planet, prosperity, peace and partnership – the GEM
Report 2016 also looks at ‘place’ with a focus on cities.
Urbanization is one of today’s defining trends – more
than half the global population lives in cities and urban
areas. The concentration of productive activity, the
availability of large markets and the promise of better
living standards all draw people and commerce to cities.
Global projections of urbanization indicate the majority
of future urban population growth will take place in lower
income countries (Figure 5.1).
This chapter presents evidence of how cities and
urbanization affect education, and how education
affects urban issues. Population growth, migration and
the refugee crisis all have particular consequences for
education. Cities – with their concentration of universities,
research institutions, high skill industries and informal
knowledge – are engines of knowledge-based innovation
and growth. The scale and speed of urban change
will require good governance, including flexibility and
innovation, with multiple stakeholders and an adaptive
approach (Jones et al., 2014; Wild et al., 2015), all of which
will benefit from citizens engaging in lifelong learning.
Education and lifelong learning also influence cities
and are key to taking advantage of cities’ physical and
social capital. They can have positive effects, such as
reducing crime, and be used in good urban planning, for
example to encourage
sustainable transport.
Education and lifelong
Education can also
help address urban learning are key to
challenges. Cities are taking advantage of
the sites of massive
cities’ physical and
inequality. Vulnerable
populations in cities social capital
in both low and high
income countries suffer
from poor access to basic services – such as education,
housing and transport – which fosters disillusion,
discontent and sometimes violence. Education can play
a crucial role in tackling inequality and discrimination in
urban areas.
Improvements in planning are crucial for ensuring
that the opportunities of urbanization outweigh the
challenges and result in more inclusive, environmentally
sustainable and prosperous cities. And education can play
a crucial role in urban planning at the local level as well as
in tackling related regional and global policy issues.
While most of the SDG agenda is driven by action at
the level of member states, integrated policy-making
is also required at the subnational level. Cities are both
incubators and locations of change, and their importance
to the world means the relationships between space
and sectors such as the economy and education must
be better understood. Such understanding would
facilitate a comprehensive, contemporary perception of
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 115