Concept Note. Rethinking Education for the New Millennium. The World Bank, 1818 H St, Washington, DC th -15 th November 2016

Transcription

1 Concept Note Rethinking Education for the New Millennium The World Bank, 1818 H St, Washington, DC th -15 th November 2016 Context and Rationale Over the years, motivated young professionals from around the world have proven that they can create innovative solutions to help solve the world s most complex challenges. Established in 2013, the Youth Summit is an annual event held by the World Bank Group (WBG) to engage with youth globally on the most pressing topics facing their generation. The primary goal of the Summit is to empower youth to find their own innovative ideas for development and provide a platform for dialogue between youth, the WBG, and the international community. The Summit is the largest worldwide annual gathering of youth at the World Bank Group; in 2015, the Youth Summit engaged over 400 participants, attracted over 12,000 viewers online and received 334 competition entries from 79 countries. Youth are the main consumers and participants in education. Despite intimate knowledge of the successes and failures of modern education, they rarely have the opportunity to shape a system that is built on their behalf. This year s Youth Summit will seek to bridge that gap, giving youth an active voice in creating a vision for the future of education. The 2018 World Development Report (WDR), Realizing the Promise of Education for Development, will be the first WDR entirely devoted to education in World Bank history, highlighting the significance of this theme in the new millennium. As a result, the Youth Summit Organizing Committee (YSOC) has chosen the following topic for the Youth Summit 2016: Rethinking Education for the New Millennium: Education of Youth, for Youth, by Youth. The event is scheduled to take place during the third week of November, which coincides with Education Week in the United States. Subthemes will guide and focus the larger theme of rethinking education around topics that are especially pressing this year, leverage World Bank knowledge and resources, and directly engage participant s interests and concerns. This year s subthemes will be: (i) Innovation and Technology in Education, (ii) Skills for the New Economy, (iii) Gender Equality in Education, and (iv) Education in Crisis Zones. More detail about the subthemes can be found in Annex II. Summit Format The 2016 Youth Summit will have three components: 1) Plenary: The Summit will open with a dynamic high-level plenary session which aims to kick start conversation on the future of education. The plenary session will juxtapose youth representatives and speakers from the World Bank Group, the private sector, government, academia and civil society with the objective of engaging a plurality of views on the future of education. The sessions will provide a combination of speeches and presentations, moderated debate among the speakers, and Q&A. 2) Workshops: Following the plenary session, attendees will participate in training sessions that delve into the subthemes and debate topics discussed in the plenary sessions. The workshops will be structured around a specific question that the attendees are challenged to address with a

2 concrete and actionable solution. These guiding questions will stem from a top-of-mind issues faced by World Bank projects, engage the discussion topics of the plenary sessions, and harness the experience, views and initiative of the youth attendees. Workshops will also be held in World Bank Country Offices across the world to make these discussions global. 3) Competition: The second part of the Summit will feature a live pitch competition, which represents the last round of the Youth Summit 2016 Competition Rethinking Education: Innovative Ideas to Transform Education. Ahead of the Summit, young professionals from all over the world will be invited to propose innovative, action-oriented business-level or policy-level solutions that would contribute to providing young people with a quality, inclusive and relevant education, adapted to the realities of the 21st century 1. A Jury made up of a group of experts will then pre-select the most compelling proposals 2 and invite their authors (individuals or teams) to pitch them during the live competition. Winners will be designated through a combination of votes from the Jury and the audience. After the pitch competition, all contestants will participate in workshops to help them further develop their ideas, building on the feedback provided by the Jury. Audience The target audience for the Summit is young professionals from around the world, aged 18-35, who are passionate about utilizing their own experiences inside and outside the classroom to reimagine the future of education. Individuals interested in participating in the Summit will be required to complete an online application form indicating their interest in attending the Summit. Communications and Youth Engagement The YSOC has developed a comprehensive communications strategy to engage young people who are passionate about education and thought leaders in the field, in addition to reinforcing the bank s presence in youth development. The YSOC will launch a social media campaign via the WBG s corporate Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels. The campaign is designed around a set of key messages related to Innovation and Technology in Education. To stay consistent with the previous years, #wbgyouthsummit will be maintained as the official hashtag of the summit. For this year s event YSOC will also promote #rethinkeducation, #education4all and #noclassceiling. The committee will reach out to influencers in academia, technology, the private sector and international development in the area of education to drive the conversation and will work with external partners to promote the Summit via their social media outlets. A blog series will be developed as part of the communication and youth engagement strategies. The blog posts will be available on the World Bank s internal, and external website, and promoted on the corporate Facebook and Twitter channel. YSOC will create an event page for the Summit hosted on the World Bank website and a World Bank Live page. The World Bank Live page will live stream parts of the event and encourage young people who are unable to attend in person to participate via live chat. 1 Application Guidelines and Competition Rules will be posted online approximately 3-4 months ahead of the Summit. 2 The Jury is a formal evaluation committee composed of experts, including representatives from the WBG and partner organizations. The Jury will select the winning applications from a pool of finalists, using agreed upon evaluation criteria. 2

3 YSOC will also revive the Collaboration for Development (C4D) platform in order to provide an open space for individuals to share challenges, resources, and ideas with peers around the world- before and after the annual summits. As part of the Youth Engagement strategy, YSOC will contact youth organizations and universities around the world to participate in the conversation and engage their communities. In order to stay actively engaged with communities and to continue to reach new audiences, members of YSOC take part in numerous events throughout the year, focusing on this year s education theme. WBG Senior Management Support The YSOC has previously received support from Senior Management to align the objectives of the Summit with those of the WBG. The Organizing Committee is currently seeking advisory support from key World Bank figures, including the management team of the Education Global Practice and the 2018 WDR. External Partnerships The YSOC is also looking for partners in the private sector, along with universities, foundations, NGOs, and international organizations that can provide financial or in-kind support. Partners are encouraged to collaborate by engaging in the conversation, appointing people for the jury of the competition, designating speakers, sponsoring attendance of youth, hosting a reception, paying for certain expenses and any other in-kind support. In exchange, the Youth Summit will provide partners with recognition as an official supporter and the opportunity to engage in Youth Summit events. Sponsors logos will be added to promotional material for the event. In addition, the Summit will provide visibility for the external partner s work in International Development, Youth Empowerment and/or Education. For further information, please contact the co-chairs: Louise Baldwin (lbaldwin1@ifc.org) & Mora Farhad (mfarhad@worldbankgroup.org) 3

4 Annex I: Youth Summit Organizing Committee The Youth Summit Organizing Committee is composed of young professionals working at the WBG who have been chosen in a competitive and democratic election. Youth Summit Steering Committee 2016 Position Name Manager and Co-Chair Louise Baldwin Treasurer and Co-Chair Mora Farhad Event Content Lead Plenaries and Training Uriel Kejsefman Sessions Event Content Lead Competition Diane Davoine Communications Lead - Branding and Jewel McFadden Outreach Management Communications Lead Social Media and Website Alejandra Isabel De Lecea Castro Event Logistics Lead IT Frederic Lafleur Parfaite Event Logistics Lead Design Alejandra Bustamante Youth Engagement Lead International Tingting Wang Youth Engagement Lead National Samhita Kumar Secretariat Fernando Castro Senior Advisor Ines Gonzalez Del Mazo 4

5 Annex II: Subthemes Innovation and Technology in Education The digital revolution has transformed modern life by revolutionizing industries and jobs, disrupting political systems, and radically altering how individuals relate with the world and each other. Yet in the midst of such disruption, education has been largely impervious to change. For the most part, modern classrooms appear similar in pedagogy and structure to those of the past century and even millennia. The initial candidates for transformation (MOOCs, distance education, personalized learning) have so far failed to deliver on their revolutionary promises. The millennial generation, the first to grow up immersed in digital technologies, is best equipped to answer the key question: how can the technologies that have so successfully disrupted industry after industry help generate new value in education? Skills for the New Economy Almost 300 million 15 to 24 year-olds are not working. Universities around the world incessantly churn out qualified graduates, yet employers say there is a shortage of skilled workers. Across the world, youth unemployment has reached unprecedented heights, damaging a generation s human capital and threatening future growth. According to McKinsey s Education to Employment report, less than 50% of employers and young graduates surveyed believe that graduates are prepared for the jobs market. As we transition into an era where machines will perform complex tasks, what skills should schools teach? How can reforms in education and training help the young generation adapt for the new economy and overcome the epidemic of youth unemployment? Gender Equality in Education Whereas in much of the developed world women have not only matched but surpassed men in education outcomes, in several regions girls still struggle to gain access to education. Research has shown that lower education for females is correlated with higher maternal and infant mortality, worse child nutrition and higher rates of HIV/AIDS. While the challenges facing girls are more prominent, in some parts of the world, boys educational outcomes lag behind girls outcomes. Gender equality means that males and females have equal opportunities to realize their full human rights and contribute to and benefit from economic, social, cultural, and political development. Equal opportunities cannot develop from a biased education system. How can we expand the promise of a quality education to all children, regardless of gender? Education in Crisis Zones Nearly one in four of the world s school-aged children 462 million now lives in 35 countries affected by crises, including an estimated 75 million children who are in desperate need of educational support. The Syrian Civil war alone has produced over 2 million child refugees and over 3 million internally displaced children. Providing education to children living in vulnerable contexts is necessary to avoid a vicious cycle of poverty and war, and to instead prepare a generation for a future of peace and prosperity. How can and should education adapt to the extreme conditions that these children endure? 5