In November 2011 (n° 379) we published a dossier on the education system in the digital age: how do we learn, now that we have the Internet; how are knowledge processes and the practices of pupils and teachers developing as an effect of the changes wrought by digital technology etc? As the new academic year begins, we take this thinking forward —thanks to this article by Alain Bouvier— through a foresight study on school systems in the main developed countries up to 2030.
Bouvier begins by reminding us of the main external impacts faced by the education system, impacts leading to its destabilization: the deep economic crisis affecting European countries (including France) over decades and disrupting the systematic relationship between the education system and employment; the quality requirements imposed on that system; the persistence of illiteracy; a strong demand for fairness; an enforced change in the occupational model; the impact of digital technology; the blurring of traditional divisions (particularly between public and private); market competition (private agencies, websites, coaching) etc. In such a context and given a time-horizon of eighteen years (2030), various scenarios are possible. These are not mutually exclusive and range from a continuance of the status quo (“the bureaucratic school”) to the “market system” with a variety of options in-between: distance-learning; (educational, geographical or ethnic) community schools; hybrid schools (classroom- and distance-learning); operator-run schools or schools run by education professionals.
We may conclude that we shall, in the future, have to link together the actions of the education system’s different stakeholders (state, communities, partners, employers etc.) and accept a degree of outsourcing of learning, while insisting that this meet the aims of quality, fairness and ethical practice essential to pupils in the globalized, digital societies we inhabit.
