Education
Op-Ed: The Global Citizens of Tomorrow Must Grow in the Classrooms of Today – Sunny Varkey
Far from being self-absorbed, young people across the globe have a strong sense of responsibility that extends beyond their country’s borders. For instance, in most countries, young people want to make it easier for migrants to live and work legally…
Far from being self-absorbed, young people across the globe have a strong sense of responsibility that extends beyond their country’s borders. For instance, in most countries, young people want to make it easier for migrants to live and work legally, and want their government to do more to tackle the global refugee crisis.
The Global Education and Skills Forum 2017 which just concluded in March had its primary focus on one ofthe most pressing questions of the age: How do we teach children to become real global citizens? With the world facing immense and unprecedented challenges from war, terrorism, an increasing divide between rich and poor and climate change, today’s children will inherit both a burden and a responsibility to tackle problems not of their making. These will be of unrivalled complexity: the problems their parents’ and grandparents’ generations could not solve and left them as a legacy.
With the world shrinking every day thanks to digital advances that allow us to see what is going on instantly on the other side of the planet, together with a network of ever more tightly knit interdependencies around the earth’s finite resources, it will simply not be possible to retreat behind old ideas. Today’s young people will be global citizens regardless, as what affects their neighbour cannot help but affect them too.
Since we met this time last year, events have shaken many of our assumptions to the core. Governments have fallen and new populist forces have risen. Public debates have become angrier – amplified by shrill voices on social media. In this climate, it can be difficult to predict what will happen in the next ten days. However, as educators, our concern must be what happens in the next ten decades.
Solving these myriad problems will be impossible without the concerted effort and talents of young people from every background and from every corner of every continent. They will certainly never rise to the challenge if the stereotype is true that they are more interested in the latest reality TV programme, the pursuit of fame and consumer goods than the future of the world and each other.
Ahead of GESF this year the Varkey Foundation set the scene by testing these assumptions about young people by asking 20,000 15-21 year olds in 20 countries searching questions about their lives, hopes, fears and aspirations in our report Generation Z: What the world’s young people think and feel. Contrary to the myth, we discovered a generation of smart, informed world citizens who share a remarkably similar outlook. It showed that this generation are natural global citizens: it’s part of the air they breathe. Two-thirds of young people we polled had close friends who belong to a different religion and very few (less than one in five) say that a person’s religion is an important factor when deciding on friendships.
They have a real-time window into lives of friends through social media – even if they live a continent away. There is less room for mutual misunderstanding when they know the smallest details of each other’s lives. This technology also gives them enormous power: they are the first generation that can mobilise an army of like-minded activists through the screen of their smartphone. No wonder that nearly nine in ten place faith in technological advance to make the world better.
Far from being self-absorbed, young people across the globe have a strong sense of responsibility that extends beyond their country’s borders. For instance, in most countries, young people want to make it easier for migrants to live and work legally, and want their government to do more to tackle the global refugee crisis.
Two thirds of young people think that making a wider contribution to society – beyond helping their family and friends – is important. We found that young people are motivated to get involved, but need our guidance on how to do it. Many say that they need better skills and a greater knowledge about how they can make a contribution. They need the help of all of us: parents, teachers, and citizens.
Young people in India were the most positive about legal immigration of any country polled and were also among the most hopeful about the world of any country polled. 49% of Indian respondents think the world is becoming better, compared to just 18% who think it is becoming worse. 31% think it is becoming neither better nor worse.
This internationalist outlook and positivity of young people chimed with many of the outward looking ideas that formidable thinkers expressed at GESF. Former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard spoke of the need to spend more on education globally if the UN’s Strategic Development Goals are to be met. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman talked about the skills needed to survive and thrive in the new world ushered in by the technological changes of a decade ago, from data morphing into “big data” to cloud computing becoming a reality.OECD Education and Skills Director Andreas Schleicher argued that global citizenship can thrive if we recognise the challenges of so much information being available and we ensure digital freedoms are not used to disadvantage communities.
The presentation of the Global Teacher Prize at the conclusion of the two-day GESF is always a highlight, and we were proud this year to present the award to inspirational Canadian teacher Maggie MacDonnell. She so impressed the judges with her dedication in helping not just her school pupils but the wider community in the remote Inuit settlement on the edge of the Arctic where she works.
Maggie MacDonnell reminds us that teachers are the best of us, that what they do helps the rest of us. When they pour such dedication and professionalism into the classroom and beyond,we can see how important it is to shape young people’s minds. We devote vast resources to dealing with the after-effects of so many of our problems. Imagine if we were to devote the same intellectual and financial capital to influence young people in those brief early years where their minds can still be moulded. Only then will this generation will stand a real chance of turning their dream of a more peaceful world into reality.
About the Author:
Sunny Varkey is Founder of the Varkey Foundation and Executive Chairman of the GEMS Education Group. He is a passionate education entrepreneur who is the driver behind GEMS’ mission to advance education for all.