© UNESCO

A high-level side event to launch the "Rethinking Education: Towards a global common good?" publication on the occasion of the 38th session of UNESCO’s General Conference. Speakers at the launch will include UNESCO DG Irina Bokova, ADG/ED Qian Tang as well as the two co-chairs of the Senior Experts’ Group which was tasked with preparing the report: Ms Amina Mohammed and Prof John Morgan. The event will take place in Room II, immediately after the High-Level Meeting to adopt the Education 2030 Framework for Action at UNESCO Headquarters from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday, 4 November 2015. Printed copies of the publication in various languages will be made available to all participants.


In the spirit of the landmark publication “Learning: The treasure within” (UNESCO 1996), this report reconsiders the purpose of education and the subsequent principles that are deemed necessary for the governance of education and knowledge as common goods. It argues for and reaffirms a humanistic approach to education whereby ‘sustaining and enhancing the dignity, capacity and welfare of the human person, in relation to others and to nature, should be the fundamental purpose of education in the twenty-first century.’ (UNESCO 2015). The publication has served as a normative reference for the vision and principles outlined in the Education 2030 Framework for Action. It is also a call for public policy dialogue around the purpose of education and the organization of learning in order to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030.