eptember 8th is the UN’s International Literacy Day. The UN marks almost 200 international days per year and uses them primarily as advocacy tools ‘to educate the general public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity’. September is a busy month for international days, with an eclectic set that includes International Day of Democracy (September 15th), International Day of Peace (September 21) and finishes with both World Maritime Day and International Day of Translation (September 30th). When you look at the whole calendar, or even just this month, then the sequencing of some of the days can make for some slightly jarring transitions - International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26 June) is followed by Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day (27 June) but individually each of these days stands for something significant and fundamental to the identity, rights and opportunities for large sections of the global population.
International Literacy Day started in 1967 and since then huge progress has been made. Literacy, along with numeracy, have long been identified as foundational skills. But they are no longer enough. Social and Emotional skills are now increasingly also listed as equally critical foundational skills, that are essential for all children to develop in order to thrive in the century ahead. Social and emotional skills are essential for wellbeing, employability, and community cohesion. UNICEF, USAID, and many education systems around the world are very clear on this.
The Education Policymakers Network was established in in 2021 to connect policymakers from different countries to work, learn and innovate together. Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, the network helps support and sustain education reform around the need to develop a breadth of skills – cognitive, creative, physical, social, and emotional – in young and school-aged learners.
We are living in a time of convergent crises: the global coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, the struggle for racial justice, the polarization of societies and a global learning crisis. Alongside these crises the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the very nature of work and economies around the world. The workforce of tomorrow will require new skills and unprecedented nimbleness.
Taken together, these challenges place exceptional demands on educational policymakers across the world. Education reform at any point in time is challenging, complex, and requires sustained energy and political will. It is particularly challenging now but is also absolutely essential.
Education that is focused on developing a breadth of skills is a necessary and legitimate response to all of these crises – as a response to learning and well-being needs during and beyond the pandemic; as a proactive and forward-thinking approach for developing behaviors that can help us address the climate crisis and structural racial inequality; and as a component of fairer, more compassionate societies in the future. It is not the only change that is needed, but it is a really important one.
Crises can act as fuel for the imagination in the most unexpected ways. Education around the world has been changed because of the Pandemic and there is now a growing momentum around the need to think about profound education transformation. In two weeks’ time, heads of state and representatives from the vast majority of countries will meet in New York for the UN’s Transforming Education Summit. Social and emotional skills are likely to be key components of many transformation agenda around the world.
Today we are publishing the first collection of essays from the Education Policymakers’ Network, in partnership with the LEGO Foundation and Diplomatic Courier. Many of the essays focus on social and emotional skills development. We will be publishing individual essays from the collection on the Education Transformation Channel over the next few weeks, but if you would like to read the whole collection now you can access it here. Together they show the global relevance of this agenda and the crucial role that policymakers will play in support education transformation.
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Social and Emotional Skills are as Foundational as Literacy
Image by Jackie Niam via Adobe Stock.
September 8, 2022
In celebrating International Literacy Day this Sept 8, it is important that we recognize traditional "foundational" skills are no longer enough. Transforming education requires we see social and emotional skills as also being foundational, writes Salzburg Global's Dominic Regester.
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eptember 8th is the UN’s International Literacy Day. The UN marks almost 200 international days per year and uses them primarily as advocacy tools ‘to educate the general public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity’. September is a busy month for international days, with an eclectic set that includes International Day of Democracy (September 15th), International Day of Peace (September 21) and finishes with both World Maritime Day and International Day of Translation (September 30th). When you look at the whole calendar, or even just this month, then the sequencing of some of the days can make for some slightly jarring transitions - International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26 June) is followed by Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day (27 June) but individually each of these days stands for something significant and fundamental to the identity, rights and opportunities for large sections of the global population.
International Literacy Day started in 1967 and since then huge progress has been made. Literacy, along with numeracy, have long been identified as foundational skills. But they are no longer enough. Social and Emotional skills are now increasingly also listed as equally critical foundational skills, that are essential for all children to develop in order to thrive in the century ahead. Social and emotional skills are essential for wellbeing, employability, and community cohesion. UNICEF, USAID, and many education systems around the world are very clear on this.
The Education Policymakers Network was established in in 2021 to connect policymakers from different countries to work, learn and innovate together. Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, the network helps support and sustain education reform around the need to develop a breadth of skills – cognitive, creative, physical, social, and emotional – in young and school-aged learners.
We are living in a time of convergent crises: the global coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, the struggle for racial justice, the polarization of societies and a global learning crisis. Alongside these crises the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the very nature of work and economies around the world. The workforce of tomorrow will require new skills and unprecedented nimbleness.
Taken together, these challenges place exceptional demands on educational policymakers across the world. Education reform at any point in time is challenging, complex, and requires sustained energy and political will. It is particularly challenging now but is also absolutely essential.
Education that is focused on developing a breadth of skills is a necessary and legitimate response to all of these crises – as a response to learning and well-being needs during and beyond the pandemic; as a proactive and forward-thinking approach for developing behaviors that can help us address the climate crisis and structural racial inequality; and as a component of fairer, more compassionate societies in the future. It is not the only change that is needed, but it is a really important one.
Crises can act as fuel for the imagination in the most unexpected ways. Education around the world has been changed because of the Pandemic and there is now a growing momentum around the need to think about profound education transformation. In two weeks’ time, heads of state and representatives from the vast majority of countries will meet in New York for the UN’s Transforming Education Summit. Social and emotional skills are likely to be key components of many transformation agenda around the world.
Today we are publishing the first collection of essays from the Education Policymakers’ Network, in partnership with the LEGO Foundation and Diplomatic Courier. Many of the essays focus on social and emotional skills development. We will be publishing individual essays from the collection on the Education Transformation Channel over the next few weeks, but if you would like to read the whole collection now you can access it here. Together they show the global relevance of this agenda and the crucial role that policymakers will play in support education transformation.
