"Foreword
Audrey AzoulayDirector-General of UNESCO
If anything has brought us together over the last year and a half, it is our feeling of vulnerability about the present and uncertainty about the future. We now know, more than ever, that urgent action is needed to change humanity’s course and save the planet from further disruptions. But this action must be long-term, and combined with strategic thinking. Education plays a vital role in addressing these daunting challenges. Yet, as the pandemic has shown, education is fragile: At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.6 billion learners were affected by school closures across the globe. Never do you appreciate something more than when faced with losing it. For that reason, UNESCO welcomes this new report, Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, prepared by the International Commission on the Futures of Education under the leadership of Her Excellency Madame Sahle-Work Zewde, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Since being founded 75 years ago, UNESCO has commissioned several global reports to rethink the role of education at key moments of societal transformation. These began with the Faure Commission’s 1972 report Learning to Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow, and continued with the Delors Commission’s report in 1996, Learning: The Treasure Within. Both of these reports were insightful and influential; however, the world has fundamentally changed in recent years. Like the reports that preceded it, the Sahle-Work Commission report is broadening the conversation on philosophies and principles needed to guide education to improve the existence of all living beings on this planet. It was developed over a two-year period and builds on extensive consultations with more than one million people. If the report teaches us one thing, it is this: We need to take urgent action to change course, because the future of people depends on the future of the planet, and both are at risk. The report proposes a new social contract for education – one that aims to rebuild our relationships with each other, with the planet, and with technology.
This new social contract is our chance to repair past injustices and transform the future. Above all, it is based on the right to quality education throughout life, embracing teaching and learning as shared societal endeavours, and therefore common goods. Realizing this vision of education is not an impossible task. There is hope, especially among the younger generations. However, we will need the entire world’s creativity and intelligence to ensure that inclusion, equity, human rights, and peace define our future. Ultimately, that is what this report invites us to do. For that reason alone, it has valuable lessons for each and every one of us.
Audrey AzoulayDirector-General of UNESCO"