Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

Global Citizenship Education
Material related to the general orientation or justification of global citizenship
(see Appendix II-7) or to critical engagement with global issues — such as
international law, transnational corporations, migration — did not receive
substantial treatment in any South Asian policy or curriculum documents (see
Appendix II-8-10). This marks a sharp contrast with the curricular emphasis on
Even as educational
policy documents
attempt to articulate
aims like producing
confident, competent
and globally
competitive citizens,
such insecurities are
also conveyed in the
heavy emphasis placed
on national identity
and interests
preparing children for competitive participation
in the globalized economy (see the emphasis
placed on critical thinking and creative thinking
in Appendix II-11). As in other Asian sub-regions,
the categories global systems, structures and
processes, and global issues hardly feature in
South Asian documents. In Bangladesh, the naming
of ‘Bangladesh and Global Studies’ as a subject
from Grade 1 indicates the importance attached in
educational policy to the articulation of national
aspirations. The tokenistic rather than substantial
nature of the ‘global’ reference is evident precisely
because the subject is introduced so early, i.e. in
the first year of primary education when a child has
little natural interest in or awareness of a global
context. But a sense of urgency and haste in introducing a global dimension to
the curriculum is not confined to Bangladesh, and can be largely attributed to
economic insecurities that are acutely felt across this region and beyond. Even
as educational policy documents attempt to articulate aims like producing
confident, competent and globally competitive citizens, such insecurities are
also conveyed in the heavy emphasis placed on national identity and interests.
Limitations and vulnerabilities of the industrial base in different regions of South
Asia are widely reflected in curriculum policies. In India, while the NCF (2005)
attempts to prioritise internal reforms in education, in order to strengthen
humanistic, child-centric tendencies, state-level (i.e. sub-national level)
curriculum policies follow the more common global discourse of competencies.
The Indian NCF takes a cautious view of the implications of globalization for
education whereas certain state-level documents, although claiming that they
are ‘aligned’ to the NCF, tend to focus overwhelmingly on the economic aims
of schooling. In Bangladesh, the growth of the readymade clothes industry is
officially celebrated as one example of the role that global competitiveness can
play in national development (Ahmed, 2004).
The case of Bhutan is unique. As a small country geographically placed between
two large, populous and powerful nations (India and China), it has attempted
to stake out its own path of development. This has been articulated in the idea
of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as the aim of development rather than the
Rethinking Schooling for the 21 st Century:
The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia
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