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Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

UNESCO MGIEP officially launched 'Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century: The State of Education, Peace and Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship' in 2017 at the UNESCO General Conference. This study analyses how far the ideals of SDG 4.7 are embodied in policies and curricula across 22 Asian countries and establishes benchmarks against which future progress can be assessed. It also argues forcefully that we must redefine the purposes of schooling, addressing the fundamental challenges to efforts to promote peace, sustainability and global citizenship through education.

UNESCO MGIEP officially launched 'Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century: The State of Education, Peace and Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship' in 2017 at the UNESCO General Conference. This study analyses how far the ideals of SDG 4.7 are embodied in policies and curricula across 22 Asian countries and establishes benchmarks against which future progress can be assessed. It also argues forcefully that we must redefine the purposes of schooling, addressing the fundamental challenges to efforts to promote peace, sustainability and global citizenship through education.

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Trend 2:<br />

Many countries across Asia emphasise <strong>the</strong> instrumental role of<br />

education in fostering national identity and developing human<br />

resources <strong>for</strong> economic development<br />

Across all 22 countries covered by this review, ‘nation as privileged referent<br />

of identity’ generally receives a very high or high weightage (with more than<br />

one third of <strong>the</strong> countries giving a very high weightage), making this <strong>the</strong> most<br />

prevalent of all concepts coded in <strong>the</strong> 172 education policy and curricular<br />

documents analysed <strong>for</strong> this review (see Appendix II-12). This indicates that all<br />

countries heavily emphasise <strong>the</strong> role of education in fostering national identity.<br />

This emphasis, coupled with <strong>the</strong> observations made in relation to Trend 1 and<br />

<strong>the</strong> minimal weightage given to ‘humanity as privileged referent of identity’, 11<br />

strongly suggests that reorienting education in Asia towards global citizenship<br />

is a daunting task.<br />

Figure 2.3 The prevalence of <strong>the</strong> concept ‘climate change’<br />

Despite climate risk being a serious problem in most of Asia, ‘climate change’ has<br />

moderate to low prevalence in education policy and curriculum.<br />

Climate Risk Index (1996-2015)<br />

Climate change (sub-category 2c)<br />

Very highly affected<br />

Highly affected<br />

Moderately affected<br />

Lowly affected<br />

Very lowly affected<br />

Prevalence<br />

Very High High Moderate Low Absent<br />

Source: Germanwatch. 2017. Global Climate Risk Index 2017.<br />

https://germanwatch.org/en/download/16411.pdf (Accessed 28 September 2017).<br />

11 Japan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan give a moderate weightage, and Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India<br />

and Cambodia give a high weightage to ‘humanity as privileged referent of identity’.<br />

48<br />

Chapter 2: Key Findings and Insights

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