In 2022, 250 million children worldwide did not attend school. One of the main reasons is poverty. Schools are often poorly equipped, and many are in remote locations. A lot of children don't go to school because they have to help their parents, either with chores at home or helping to earn an income.
A further problem is the global teacher shortage. Education expert Marc Natanagara sees the reasons for this in “too little respect and poor pay”. According to UN estimates, an additional 44 million primary and secondary teachers will be needed worldwide by 2030.
And last but not least: the faltering digitization process: According to the UNESCO World Education Report, digital media has positive effects on learning – although only if they are also pedagogically supported. To date, only half of all countries worldwide have defined training standards for their teachers' IT skills. 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 used to incite hatred and violence.
This is another reason why schooling is all the more important, says Marc Natanagara: "I think every teacher should be teaching students how to think critically, how to analyze, how to evaluate, how to make good decisions”.
Conclusion: The global education system faces huge challenges in the future.