Éducation : entrer dans le XXIe siècle

In this second introductory presentation of the topic “Schools: dateline 2020”, Alain Michel, the academic coordinator of the seminar, briefly highlights the main challenges raised for schools by a rapidly changing society which is causing inequalities to become greater and generating new ethical issues, while also creating demands for new skills and even new mental attitudes.
He then discusses the changing expectations with regard to the education system and raises the key question of what shared general culture all pupils should have acquired by the time they leave school in 2020.
Lastly, he offers several ideas about the consequences of all this for the way the process of learning is organized, how change is guided, and the outlook for teaching as a profession. Aspects of these topics were discussed in two articles published in Futuribles in 2000 and 2001 (nos. 252 and 266).