Who should control education?

Abstract

The virtue of education is widely held as being self-evident - a human right. And to a large extent, the content of education is also rarely challenged, apart from questions of emphasis. However the core purpose of education can be widely disputed. Is it to prepare people for work, to liberate their potential as citizens, to ameliorate unemployment figures, to help the nation's industry to compete globally, or to keep people off the streets - or something else? As technology has provided previously unimaginable immediate access to knowledge and communities, educational institutions have been challenged to go beyond simply transmitting information, and instead to demonstrate their value to society. They have sought to recruit technology to support them in this task, but struggle to compete with the rapidly changing technologies, and the increasingly sophisticated activities people can organise for themselves with modern tools. It may be time for the education system to fundamentally review its role in the modern world, and prepare for radical change in order to provide a relevant service for people living in the 21st century.