What are we expecting from today’s schools?

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El Ghali Fikri

There is wide consensus that education is essential for development and growth. A society that does not provide its pupils with (quality) education is deemed to fail in today’s competitive global economy. But one might probably want to precise the kind of growth that schools are expected to deliver. To be sure, we want our education system to provide inclusive growth. In other words, for competition to be fair, schools ought to provide a level playing field to all pupils and equally enable them to be emancipated actors in their economic sectors of choice. An equal and inclusive education system is expected to reduce social inequalities related to gender, race, origin, religion or class. The latter consideration drives us from a pure economic perception of education policy to one that incorporates a social approach. In other words, not only do schools have to enable pupils integrate the labor market with appropriate skills and knowledge but they also have to ensure that all have equal access to the labor market. How does it translate into practice?

Education policy as economic policy: preparing students for the labor market

Our economies have changed dramatically over time. Technological progress has rendered many human tasks redundant but it has also set higher requirements for the labor force. It is now a common thing to say that literacy is no longer the ability to read and write a specific language but rather the ability to use the computer, and soon the ability to code algorithms. The “uberization” of the economy and the sudden rise of hordes of data scientists and programmers in the most high-tech companies is only the tip of the new economic reality that education systems will eventually have to face. Better sooner than later … 

Some countries are already reforming their education systems to grasp the new economic reality. France has introduced multidisciplinary courses and teamwork in lower secondary curricula. Other countries, like the United Kingdom, have introduced programming courses into school programs starting age 5. 

The latter example speaks for the necessity of engaging all stakeholders in the education policy process if it is to be successful. Economic actors need to be engaged in the design process of curricula. In the UK’s example, Microsoft and Google were both part of the adventure. Other stakeholders include: teachers who have to be trained for their new tasks and parents who may be of little help to their children if they are not sensitized to the new contents.

Education policy as social policy: providing a level playing field to all students 


In addition to quality (of curriculum quality, teachers and learning environment), equity is key for today’s education systems. It is not enough that our schools provide high quality education for a “happy few”. They are now challenged to provide the same (high) quality for all.


However, many challenges stand in the way of equity. For example, the profusion of high-cost high-quality private schools attracting the best teachers and the most privileged students poses a threat to equal opportunities for all. This is especially the case for countries where the State has failed in providing a certain level of service in the education sector. Take Morocco as a case in point. The better off send their pupils to super-expensive international schools (French, Belgian, American, Spanish or even Turkish) or to private schools, while the least privileged often have to settle with over-crowded low-quality public schools. In this special case, education is doing the very opposite of what it is intended to do: it is widening the gap between rich and poor, urban and rural instead of narrowing it!



Equity issues in education can take very different forms. In addition to the socio-economic background, gender in traditional societies and origin in multicultural ones can be important hurdles as well. Seen through the lens of equity, education policy has to be part of a broader social policy aiming at providing full social citizenship to all.

Education for citizenship and national identity 

In Education Policy: Process, Themes and Impact, Bell and Stevenson argue that “education has a crucial role in promoting … a sense of social cohesion. It also has a similarly ideological role in developing what are considered to be appropriate values in society and in establishing a sense of national identity.” To be sure, globalization has not only changed the way economies operate and interact but has also had an impact on how societies perceive themselves and interact with each other. As such, education is a means for States to perpetuate cultural heritage and teach national history. It is also the place where students are expected to learn the basic rules of responsible citizenship. While the rules of citizenship (what are a citizen’s rights and duties?) may not be problematic, the ideological role of education may, on the other hand, be an issue especially for multi-cultural countries with important migrant populations. For example, in secular societies, should public schools teach religions or should this be delegated to private institutions with the indoctrination and excess risks that such approach may entail? Here again, it is important to adopt a multilateral approach engaging stakeholders from civil society, minorities’ representatives and intellectuals to think of optimal ways to transmit national culture(s) all the while preserving a “sense of social cohesion”.

Education for world citizenship

Bell and Stevenson write that “education plays a pivotal role in developing a sense of citizenship whether at a local, national or even a global level.” While education is a natural way for transmitting national identity (or identities), I believe that they should put even more focus in training pupils to the values of universalism, openness, tolerance, acceptance and dialogue. As today’s pupils will eventually have to work and live in an even more global and diverse world than the one we are living in, they should be accustomed since young age to coping with other people’s differences, whatever they may be. This can only be done by teaching them a set of universal values and enabling them to become full world citizens. 
Going back to our initial question, it now seems clear that schools can no longer be looked at as places of (traditional) knowledge-transmission. Economic, societal and geopolitical changes call for reinventing the school as an equal place for experience sharing, discovery of self and the world, creativity and openness to the other.


 Photos from: 
https://go8.edu.au/sites/default/files/images/publication/photo_-_labour_market_demand_for_university_graduates.jpg
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/Holyrood_HS_globe260_tcm4-615324.jpg
http://193.242.192.196/sites/default/files/Topics/global-citizenship-education.png

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