In 2022, 250 million children worldwide did not attend school.
One of the main reasons is poverty.
In the wealthiest countries in the world,
children go to school for an average of 10 years.
In the poorest countries, it's not even three.
Many schools are poorly equipped, and often they are far away.
Many children don't go to school because they have to help
their parents, either with chores at home or help earn an income.
Another reason for the education crisis is the
global teacher shortage.
According to UN estimates, an additional 44 million primary and
secondary teachers will be needed worldwide by 2030 -
15 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone.
"They say it's the profession that creates all other professions,
that makes all other professions possible.
You would think that there'd be a lot of respect
for the occupation and that people would be very well paid.
But despite the advances made in education, that is generally
not the case.
And so fewer people have decided to go into it."
Schools are also often the scene of war and crises.
According to the study "Education under Attack ",
more than 5,000 attacks on educational institutions
were registered in 2020 and 2021.
A third reason for the problems in the education system:
COVID-19.
In Uganda, schools remained closed for 83 weeks
during the pandemic.
Worldwide, over half a billion pupils were unable to take
part in online learning.
Wealthier countries were able to digitize teaching content
during the pandemic.
This enabled pupils to learn how to use the new technologies.
According to the UNESCO World Education Report,
digital media has positive effects on learning.
But only if they are also pedagogically supported.
To date, only half of all countries worldwide have defined training standards
for the IT skills of their teachers.
Yet teaching these skills is now more important than ever.
Artificial intelligence has long since arrived in the classroom.
But unregulated AI systems can threaten democracy and
human rights, if they are used to incite hatred and violence.
Despite all the concerns, education expert Marc Natanagara
believes that artificial intelligence
is nothing to worry about.
"There's no stopping the wave of digitalization
and artificial intelligence.
We've already been using it.
I think so many people thought, Oh my God, AI is here.
We've already been using it.
The thing that hit us so quickly was this ability to do
generative AI where it's producing something really concrete,
like a whole essay or a picture... or now a video.
I don't know if you've seen Sora, Open AIs."
The World Economic Forum also addressed the topic of Education 4.0.
In addition to data analysis and programming, schools should promote
social skills that focus on people - such as collaboration,
empathy, social awareness and global responsibility.
In its report on the future of schools,
UNESCO also focuses on global connections.
The earth should be seen as an interdependent system of people,
animals and the environment.
And additionally, schools should teach kids how to
recognize fake news.
"I think every teacher should be teaching students
how to critically think, how to analyze, how to evaluate,
how to make good decisions.
We don't want to get too caught up in the content and specific knowledge
because knowledge is constantly changing, advancing.
We don't know what tomorrow's careers are going to be,
so let's teach students how to think."