Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education published by UNESCO (2021).
“We face an existential choice: continue on an unsustainable path or radically change course. To continue on the current path is to accept unconscionable inequalities and exploitation, the spiralling of multiple forms of violence, the erosion of social cohesion and human freedoms, continued environmental destruction, and dangerous and perhaps catastrophic biodiversity loss. To continue on the current path is to fail to anticipate and address the risks that accompany the technological and digital transformations of our societies.
We urgently need to reimagine our futures together and take action to realize them. Knowledge and learning are the basis for renewal and transformation. But global disparities – and a pressing need to reimagine why, how, what, where, and when we learn – mean that education is not doing what it could to help us shape peaceful, just, and sustainable futures.
We all have an obligation to current and future generations – to ensure that our world is one of abundance not scarcity, and that everyone enjoys human rights to the fullest. Despite the urgency of action, and in conditions of great uncertainty, we have reason to be full of hope. As a species, we are at the point in our collective history where we have the greatest access ever to knowledge and to tools that enable us to collaborate. The potential for engaging humanity in creating futures together has never been greater…”
