Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education

The interwoven futures of humanity and our planet are under threat. Urgent action, taken together, is needed to change course and reimagine our futures. Education, long acknowledged as a powerful force for positive change, has new, urgent and important work to do. This report, two years in the making and informed by a global consultation process that has engaged with approximately one million people, is presented by the International Commission on the Futures of Education, and invites governments, institutions, organizations, and citizens around the world to forge a new social contract for education that will help us build peaceful, just, and sustainable futures together and for all. It examines where education finds itself now, between past promises and uncertain futures, argues for renewing education along five dimensions: Pedagogy, curricula, teaching, schools and learning in all areas of life and finishes in catalyzing a new social contract for education with calls for research, global solidarity and international cooperation. Of interest to learners, educators, education systems managers and planners, researchers, governments and civil society, it features in-depth looks at digital technologies, climate change, democratic backsliding and societal polarization and the uncertain future of work. The report aims not only to open the conversation about education to everyone and provoke thought, but to spur each one of us on to action. It argues, above all, that is through millions of individual and collective acts of courage, leadership, resistance, creativity and care that we will change course and transform education to build just, equitable and sustainable futures.