By Dr Tony Mays, Director: Education at COL
With over 60 per cent of the Commonwealth’s population under the age of 30, the demand for inclusive and equitable education, and the skills young people need to thrive, is an undeniable global priority. The rising generation holds the keys to tackling the world’s biggest challenges. Their voices must inform the work of educators and policymakers for a more sustainable and prosperous future.
This year’s International Day of Education, observed annually on 24 January, prioritises the empowerment of youth and highlights the role of young people in achieving inclusive and equitable quality education and in building peaceful and inclusive societies. COL’s work has reflected this focus for a long time, empowering youth to become actively involved in global crises and championing causes, such as climate change mitigation.
Championing youth, as UNESCO notes, requires the involvement and representation of youth in decision-making bodies to ensure meaningful youth engagement. Historically, COL has empowered youth through other pathways.
For a long time, COL’s work with youth was indirect through partnerships with government ministries, institutions and civil society organisations, or through targeted projects such as Empowering Women and Girls, Open Schooling, and Girls Inspire. Understanding the need for participation and learning among all age groups, COL worked with its partners to empower educators, parents, and young workers to work with youth in transformative ways that incorporate appropriate guidance and localised, culturally relevant practices, such as in COL’s recent work in the Pacific.
COL’s engagement with youth has also focused heavily on the use of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Technology-enabled Learning (TEL). For young people who are unable or unwilling to access conventional in-person learning, ODL and TEL provides them with an opportunity to succeed regardless of location or circumstance.
At the most recent Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, an event that also emphasised the vital role of youth in tackling global challenges, a research paper authored by students explored the potential of open digital resources in secondary education in Bangladesh. The authors write that open digital resources can improve secondary education by providing students with easier, more affordable, and multimodal access to learning materials. Open digital resources, they argue, personalises student education, and increases interest in lifelong learning.
While all new courses developed by COL for youth with ODL and TEL contain provisions for the development of appropriate digital skills and real-world application, decisions about what skills are needed and how they can be integrated have not typically been done in consultation with youth themselves.
A new project, however, formed through a collaboration between COL and the Centre for Global Education (CGE), aims to change this by taking into account the needs of youth, as voiced by youth directly. The two-phase project will involve developing, deploying and analysing a global survey on digital skills by youth themselves, and then developing Open Educational Resources (OER) to address the needs expressed. Survey findings will also feed into COL’s existing interventions and ongoing work with partners.
As we take this day to reflect on how to better serve youth around the Commonwealth, COL reaffirms its belief in the rising generation and looks ahead to innovative ways to work more directly with youth in the years to come. It is our hope that this new project offers a springboard to give youth a more permanent seat at the table.
