A Shared Vision for the Futures of Education

When UNESCO launched its Futures of Education initiative at the United Nations’ General Assembly in September 2019, little did they know that within a short six months COVID-19 would serve to spotlight the very challenges impacting global education.

At the pandemic’s height in April 2020, 90% of total enrolled learners globally were affected, with 190 countries closing education institutions to curb the spread of the disease.¹ While these numbers have reduced to about 50% in early September 2020, with education institutions following strict standard operating procedures, the immediate and long term impact to this generation of learners is already being felt.

“Educators, families and communities must be commended for their efforts to retain learning activities during this period. Despite challenges including lack of access to physical spaces and resources, limitations in technology and devices, and financial and socio-political downturns, education remained front and centre among most communities. COVID-19 signified the dire need for the reinvention of education. While there are different needs for different communities, the reality remains that more emphasis must be given to education in overcoming our shared global concerns,” explained Tan Lin Nah, Chief Executive Officer, INTI International University & Colleges.

Responding to UNESCO’s call for insights to drive its Futures of Education agenda at the 2021 General Conference, a diverse group of education stakeholders convened in August 2020 to consult on a shared vision for Malaysian education.

Hosted and facilitated by INTI, participants included: HE Michael Growder, Deputy Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia; Sudev Bangah, Managing Director, IDC ASEAN; Dr Mark Chia, Director, Data, Astro Malaysia; Elmarie Potgieter, Managing Director, RITE Education Group; and Anne Tham, Founder & CEO, Ace Ed-Venture.

Joining them and representing fresh graduates and students were: Phoenix Yee Mae Fong, INTI alumna and Founder, Ryowear; Natalia Bong, INTI alumna and Senior Analyst, Strategy & Planning, Lazada; Mr Teoh Mun Hong, INTI alumnus and Adoption Specialist, Microsoft; and Hussain Ali, an international student pursuing INTI’s Diploma in Graphic Design.

Together with senior leaders, Lin Nah; Lee Chew Ging, Deputy Chief Academic Officer, INTI; and Dr Jane Lim, Chief Executive, INTI International College Subang, the focus group consultation tackled the concerns, purpose and implications of learning from multiple perspectives. Following the discussion, several themes emerged as considerations for education reform.

Improving access to education

The most important consideration shared was access to education. As with all crises, socio-economic vulnerabilities hit marginalised communities the hardest. Beyond the loss of safe spaces offered by school facilities and teachers, COVID-19 put a damper in the long term development of underprivileged children, who often shoulder the hopes of a better future for their families and communities.

While learning risks were mitigated to an extent in urban and township areas through the adoption of online learning, access to stable infrastructures and devices were also significant challenges. Virtual technologies will undoubtedly facilitate better access to knowledge and resources in the long run, but in the immediate term it was evident that technology added to the disparity between different learning groups.

Expressing her views during the consultation, Natalia Bong, a fresh graduate with a passion for business and socio-economic development, said: “We often see education as the means to free individuals from poverty. But in truth, if you are poor, you may not even be able to access education, as we’ve seen these last few months. Beyond fixing the problems current students have with accessing education, more needs to be done for children and youth who are cut off from education completely. This is a crucial goal that we should work towards collectively.”

Redefining education’s purpose

Learning outcomes and academic qualifications continue to be widely debated, with industries and thought leaders touting that present education structures do not sufficiently prepare students for the real world. Subsequently, today’s highly informed and socially-aware Generation Z learners want more from their learning experiences than just preparing them for jobs and earning an income.

Collectively, the focus group participants agreed that education’s aims should be to make lives better, to develop individual and collective capacities, and to build up awareness in the importance of safeguarding the planet.

Anne Tham, a seasoned education leader, shared that for these to be realised, education change needed to start at primary schools, and then reinforced systematically at secondary and tertiary education levels. For education to be effective, the gap between student capabilities at lower and higher levels of learning needed to be bridged, so that learners experience continuous growth rather than disparate expectations at different stages of their education.

For Elmarie Potgieter, who works with Malaysian educators in developing competencies for 21st century schools, there needs to be a greater urgency in including emotional intelligence and mental health in education transformation. Beyond knowledge and skills, solving problems with empathy, compassion and self-awareness are also necessary in moulding a new generation of game changers.

Empowering educators

Creating better learning experiences will not be possible without the empowerment of educators. Presently, there is insufficient emphasis on training teachers and creating opportunities for collaboration among educators from different levels.

Participants from the education sector acknowledged that many Malaysian educators struggled to keep up with their young students, especially due to a lack of resources, tools and technologies. Guidance and support are also needed to foster new mind-sets among educators, with less emphasis on students passing examinations and more towards helping them get ahead in life.

To this effect, partnerships between government, education and industry need to be strengthened so that educators are not teaching in silos within a fixed, traditional syllabus.

HE Michael Growder shared that post pandemic, there would be a greater need for educators to teach across borders, and that this change would also extend to regulators in reassessing the policies governing teaching requirements. Additionally, he felt that more focus needed to be given to education outputs. Rather than focusing on theoretical curriculum, education should be measured by learner or graduate outcomes.

For Sudev Bangah, content still plays an important part in learning experiences but needs to be updated to suit the times. Sharing the impact of social media and the value of education in the aspirations of today’s digital natives, he expressed the need for an ecosystem where educators were inspired and trained to create diverse content that reflects today’s trends and resonates with younger generations.

The participants also voiced their belief that in order for educators to get ahead, there must be a facilitation of greater synergies among the teaching profession, with industry enabling better access to trends, technology and data. Additionally, educators should not be unflinchingly regulated to fixed spaces and syllabus. If an educator is outstanding in a field, they should be given opportunities to share their expertise across the board.

Skills-based education and learning without fear of repercussions

One of the strongest considerations shared by the graduate and student participants was the role of education in preparing students for their futures. While acknowledging that education plays a part in job security, they called for more emphasis in the development of skills following individual capabilities.

“We currently have a very structured and inflexible approach to education, with emphasis on a single way to assess all students’ competencies that is often unfair as no two students are alike. Skills-based and student-led learning is a better measure of capabilities and interests, and helps students to realise what they do well and how they can put those capabilities to good use in making a difference around them,” shared Phoenix Yee, who began her journey as an entrepreneur while studying and found her learning experiences relevant when starting her own business.

“For many young people, securing a job is no longer the only reason for getting an education. It is about creating opportunities for students so we can develop our own identity, find work we love and play a part in the real issues impacting our society,” she adds.

For her and the younger participants, there was a need for education to shift from broad based, traditional methods to individual focused learning where students co-facilitated what, how and where they learn. To do so, they also proposed that educators and regulators needed to create environments where there was less fear of repercussions when students did not do well in certain areas and were instead encouraged in developing their personal capabilities.

Summarising the discussion, Lin Nah said, “Education can no longer be defined by a single set of standard ideas or outcomes because it is about human thoughts, emotions and perceptions that are ever-evolving. This diversity and growth is the essence of good societies and organisations.”

“The grids and boxes of what, how and where we learn have already been blurred. Rather than fixed outcomes, education should be about providing everyone the scientific, artistic and humanitarian knowledge to make lives better in the environment they live in, and inspire learners to solve the problems of day to day life. Only once learners are empowered to do so can education be said to be truly effective,” she concluded.

¹ UNESCO 2020