Salzburg Global Fellows share their views during Breadth of Skills: Education Transformation
A select number of Fellows at Breadth of Skills: Education Transformation were asked, "What next step to advance breadth of skills would you like to see your country take?" We have published their answers below.
"Colombia is interested in starting a new route. We are working to transform the assessment mission. I think that if we get that transformation, we can improve our critical thinking, achieve better results, more creativity, and we can offer different opportunities to teachers, to families, and to students. I think in my context, we need to find options in order to develop real strategies, because we are talking about change, but we do not yet have the strategies. We have a big challenge because each region designs their own pedagogical projects. The ministry of education offers general guidelines, but each community builds their own projects. So the idea is that our communities understand the characteristics of the projects. If we do that, we can offer more ideas."
Angela Nocua,
Advisor to the Deputy Minister of Education, Colombia
"In Delhi, we took a step a couple of years back and launched a ‘Happiness Curriculum’, the first of three mind-set curriculums that we launched. It was intended to move beyond the focus of knowledge acquisition, rather acquiring the skill of being more aware of one’s emotions, being able to express oneself, and be more emotionally resilient, to get students in the right frame of mind for learning. This is implemented across all government schools, from kindergarten to grade 8, and we have put the ‘happiness class’ at par with any other scholastic class. So we have been able to diversify. Going forward, we have introduced two more curricula – entrepreneurship curricula, and citizenship development. So how emotionally you see yourself, to what extent you become a problem-solver and critical thinker, and how you see yourself in society. So these are the range of the issues that are covered, and all three of these curricula cover behaviour, practising to change and improve it."
Shailendra Sharma
Principal Advisor to Director of Education, Government of NCT Delhi, India
"I really want to advise my colleagues in Tanzania to integrate the breadth of skills in the curriculum, because we need to emphasize 21st century skills. These relate directly to breadth of skills, and now I understand how we can integrate breadth of skills thinking into teaching; maybe in the content, or maybe in the pedagogy. In Tanzania, we are in the process of modifying the curriculum, from pre-primary to secondary school, and I think maybe it’s the right time now to put my ideas forth in the development of new curricula. We need to develop age-appropriate instructional material for young children; this could be a great avenue to incorporate breadth of skills instructional materials for effective teaching and learning for young children."
Hawa Selemani
Senior Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Tanzania
