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Elena Toukan, Research Coordinator and Sobhi Tawil, Director, Future of Learning and Innovation, UNESCO

As the international education community reflected on the Pact for the Future adopted at the United Nations in New York last September, many rightly wondered why education was largely absent from the agenda. Not only were there no specific tracks on education during the Summit of the Future, but even the few references to education in the Pact were regressively framed as service delivery. 

This oversight was all the more perplexing given that the 2022 Transforming Education Summit was intended to feed directly into the 2024 Summit of the Future. One would have expected that education - a key means of building human capability to shape alternative futures - would be a key element in discussions on long-term global sustainability. And yet, it was largely absent. The Pact for the Future steered clear of significant commitment to international cooperation on education.

How did a fundamental pillar of individual and societal empowerment and development receive so little attention?

One possible explanation for this is symptomatic of how the overall summit was framed—in the language of crisis, and the short-term emergency mindset that it implies. 

Certainly, pressing global challenges legitimately dominated the agenda at the Summit of the Future—a shifting geopolitical landscape, accelerated climate change, economic upheaval, the upsurge of violent conflict—many of which were unfolding in real time as delegates took the podium. The narrative of humanity at a tipping point, and of ecological systems on the verge of collapse, is certainly legitimate and vital context as we consider our shared futures.

But attempting to address the root causes of fundamental development challenges through short-term solutions creates a paradox. While crises demand immediate action, the urgency of the present all too often crowds out the need for a more fundamental long-term change of course. Such long-term transformation requires commitment and vision. This is also true for foundational processes for education.

Education extends a promise to rising generations. The promise is a commitment to education as fundamental human right throughout life. It is a commitment to upholding, and renewing, the social contract for education as a public endeavour and a common good. 

In the current context of uncertainty, however, governments may be wary of making promises that could raise expectations and demand accountability. Indeed, making such promises always entails risks. But, arguably, the existential risks of failing to do so are considerably higher. Private companies, meanwhile, are increasingly seizing opportunities to fill the gap, offering quick fixes and cordoning off new markets to placate the symptoms of retreating societal commitment.

Certainly, collective crises must be addressed as a matter of urgency. But a perpetual short-term crisis response mode can be antithetical to the kind of long-term vision that building robust, equitable, life-long and life-wide learning systems demand. Long-term vision and thinking are also essential to tackling the root causes of other equally long-term processes such as ecological destruction, and not just to addressing the immediate consequences. 

The fear of intergenerational thinking, constrained by short-term political cycles, continues to stifle leaders’ imagination and the courage to plan beyond immediate horizons. Short- and medium-range targets can be useful to mobilize efforts, but alone they lack the clarity of purpose needed to nurture a deeper, more collaborative vision for the future.

The short-term approach, therefore, needs to be complemented by courageous, forward-looking and long-term vision. An earnest and serious examination of the prospects and realities that future generations will inherit must be the foundation of dialogue and commitments for our shared futures.

Education is at the heart of any true commitment to the material and societal wellbeing of future generations. Renewing faith in any social contract for education requires commitment to education as a public endeavour and a common good, in which all have a right to participate through democratic mechanisms and spaces. Capacity building, intergenerational conversations rooted in solidarity, and the generation of knowledge across all levels are impossible without a robust worldwide commitment to education’s promise.

History shows us that long-term thinking for common and public goods has indeed yielded socially transformative outcomes. Public parks and conservation areas, library systems, and public education all arose from a collective vision of the future, as did the very multilateral architecture that grew from crises of the mid-20^th century. These systems, born out of conflict and cooperation, laid the foundations for diplomacy and the dismantling of much of the architecture of colonial oppression.

Yet, we seem to have taken these common goods for granted, neglecting their ongoing evolution. Perhaps the biggest mistake has been the belief that the job is “done”—that these systems, once established, no longer require care or renewal. But multilateral institutions, common goods, and education are not static; they are nascent forms, requiring continuous adaptation to serve a rapidly evolving, interconnected worldwide community. Future generations have a right not only to benefit from these shared systems, but to continue the work of co-constructing them.

The challenges we face today demand a renewed commitment to education –– not as an isolated sectoral concern, but as the foundation for a just, equitable and sustainable future. A flourishing, diverse, and inclusive worldwide knowledge commons, anchored in education throughout life, has the power to preserve and enrich our shared heritage of the past, while addressing their exclusions and limitations. 

If we are serious about addressing our most perplexing, shared challenges, and fulfilling our roles as “future ancestors” of the generations to come, perhaps more opportunities are needed to complement urgent action with forward-looking vision outside of routine planning and target-setting mechanisms. Thinking deeply and collaboratively about what is 20, 40, 60, or 100 years ahead might indeed change the kind of action we take now. 

Decision-makers must break free from the mindset of perpetual crisis thinking and invest in the long-term work of education, whose results are often only visible after years or even generations. Only then can we secure a future that is not merely a response to today’s emergencies but one of proactive forward-looking care and commitment for generations to come.