WISE Summit 2021: Reimagining the future of education

World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) recently brought educational leaders, young curators, and the global community together to discuss the disruption in education due to Covid under the theme ‘Generation Unmute’. In a WISE report, data showed that school closures have had a devastating impact not only on learning but have shown the role of a school to be much more than just an unspoken transaction between a teacher and the student, highlighting the inequalities within the educational institutions. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Edios Global, Lucia Burtnik, children– especially in the developing countries, have not returned back to school and they are most likely to drop out. Institutions and school leaders will now have to reimagine education for those that were left behind. The 2015 Yemen war forced award-winning filmmaker and journalist, Miriam Al Dhubaani, to leave her home country and restart her life. Her education was interrupted by circumstances that were not in her control. “I had to restart my life and trying to rebuild yourself while being broken is very hard,” she said, adding that the belief of gaining education was instilled in her as a vital goal.This is just one story but the pandemic has not only brought more challenges to the education sector but has also exposed the issues rooted within our education institutions - lack of student agency and educational inequalities. Although shifting the physical classroom into a virtual setting has allowed most of the world to continue their learning, for the world’s two-thirds of the school-age children, the internet is not accessible, therefore an interruption in their education has led to severe consequences.  These marginalized communities exist all around the world and though students may themselves be ready to be part of the change, they lack access. Samia Afridi, a development sector practitioner in Pakistan, recalls her experience with developing a content strategy for 90 girls in South Punjab receiving their education from a community-based school.  Along with the standard curriculum, these 90 girls were introduced to the basics of a computer such as turning it on or off and practicing simple browsing, “instead of having a huge interest in their curriculum, they were more excited to talk about what they learned in their IT class, for example finding the recipe to make biryani.” She observed that education is about experiential learning and context-based rather than a standard textbook lesson. Initiatives such as The EdUp Experience bridges ideas between leaders in order to inspire a progressive change.“What we have done is collated ideas in podcast form for educational leaders to talk about their ideas and if other people listen to it, they become more progressive,” said Joe Sallustio, co-founder of EdUp Experience. The virus has accelerated the need to improve education much faster than the world expected to and the definitions of learning and success are constantly. A system where a student learns the test from the textbook does not work in the fast-paced world of today and not only the curriculum but assessments must be reimagined. “Even if you acquire knowledge by the book, it won’t be enough [for today’s labour market] because the book is changing,” said Burtnik.  It is not only the institutions that need the change, but empowering students to gain agency in their learning is essential in today’s world. “They are ready for the change and the way we can facilitate them is by connecting them with technology,” said Afridi. Redesigning education means changing the transactional relationship between a teacher and a student to one that is based upon the equal exchange of learning. For Burtnik, this can be possible once teachers learn to step back as they are not the owners of knowledge.“We are asking them to let go of that immediate authority and I understand that it is scary but we cannot move forward without it.The youth is the future but labour markets must be prepared for the change they will bring through their values, expectations, and needs. The conversations at WISE 2021 surrounded putting young people at the forefront when reimagining the future of education. The way forward is to unmute the youth and amplify their voice.