Like in other countries, South Korea's traditional technical and vocational schools have been struggling to attract prospective students due to concerns about the lack of guarantee for decent jobs and career stability after graduation. Students often have difficulty finding a job immediately after graduation and are often poorly treated by companies.
Pinocchio had it clear: "(...) at school, I want to learn to read immediately. Then tomorrow, I will learn to write, and the next day I will learn to count. Later, with my skill, I will earn a lot of money." These words of Carlo Collodi (1882) are still relevant today as we seek to promote a job creation agenda that guarantees the essential components of recovery and transformative growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.
We live in a world of noise, where social networks and technology-mediated interpersonal communication encourage us to continuously speak, write, and give our opinions. However, although we engage in dialogues, we often hardly listen to each other carefully. Therefore, developing listening skills is crucial.
A recent survey indicated that seven of the 10 most requested capabilities in job postings were skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, or leadership.
Making societies more inclusive and fostering peace cultures is more important than ever in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Many countries in this region face enormous challenges, such as social inequalities, widespread violence, and a lack of opportunities, especially for the youth. Promoting global citizenship education is key to tackling these challenges.
After completing six remote tutoring pilots to accelerate learning in the region, we know these programs help recover learning loss. In two of the pilots, students who received eight tutorials in fundamental mathematics managed to gain a quarter of a school year compared to those who did not participate in the intervention. In addition, a more significant effect was observed in the most vulnerable, with a low-cost investment.
En el Mes de la Mujer, Enfoque Educación invitó a cuatro destacadas personalidades de la región a reflexionar sobre cómo la educación puede derribar brechas y promover la igualdad de género.
We live in an age of massive knowledge. The 21st century offers challenges such as misinformation, cyberbullying, online grooming (online sexual harassment and abuse), and the production of open knowledge, growing at an unstoppable speed. In 2022 alone, the total data consumed worldwide was 97 zettabytes, 18 more than in 2021.
Is it goodbye to teachers? Is it goodbye to schooling as we know it? Will it lead to reinventing education, schools, and educators? ChatGPT, an innovative tool that answers questions about almost anything, was released toward the end of 2022. Put this way, it would seem like the exact old wine in a new bottle. After all, Google and Wikipedia have been doing this for decades.
Addressing the challenges and the future of education involves recognizing that we are facing an unprecedented context, which is not solely the result of the pandemic and a complex global geopolitical and economic scenario. It is also a consequence of the structural issues that the region was already facing, combined with other persistent global challenges like climate change, migration, and conflict.