Salzburg Global Fellows share their views during Breadth of Skills: Education Transformation
“The idea of focusing on competencies as opposed to just rote learning is critical. We should just allow rote learning to die. What the learner is able to do is more critical than what the learner knows. Just having knowledge and not having the opportunity to use that knowledge to do something, for me that’s not education. World over, the focus has been on the acquisition of knowledge at the expense of allowing this child to process that information and apply it in real-life settings.”
Grace Maina,
Deputy Director, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Kenya
“There are some obvious ones, like the climate crisis, but one that we don’t think a lot about is what you might call a demographic deficit. So actually making sure people are informed and taking part in that process, but that’s really hard to explain to kids. If I was to define what the most important megatrend is, it would be to never assume that all the megatrends have been covered. One of the dangers of mega trends is concentrating on those, and you miss the next big thing.”
Oliver Bray,
Strategic Director, Curriculum, Pedagogy, Assessment and Innovation, Education Scotland, United Kingdom
“Democracy being weakened is for me the most important. We’ve been living in a very weird time in terms of institutions and human rights protections. I believe we should strengthen our institutions to make sure that democratic regimes are still strong. It’s time for us to come together as young leaders and educational activists around the world to make sure that the next generations will understand their role. Schools are essential for that. They should promote debate and critical thinking and different ways to be more involved in defending democracy and liberty.”
Renan Ferreirinha Carneiro, Secretary of Education for Rio, Brazil
"“I think it’s technology. Technology is a major one where no one is left behind. Whether you accept it or not, it will change you. So we should look at it as the one positively; we should not try to avoid it. Of course, we have to know its limits: technology depends on our surroundings. We have different localities and different environments. Although some things are similar, we are also different. You should make technology for your own use.”
Salvatory Alute, Pre-Primary Education Coordination Officer, President’s Office of Regional Administration and Local Government, Tanzania
This article featured in Issue 2 of the Breadth of Skills: Education Transformation program newsletter. Download the full issue here.
