A New Global Purpose for Education?

Contributor(s): Vishal Talreja | Education is a national endeavour, but with our growing interdependence, is it time we acknowledge it has a global purpose? Join us for the launch of Thrive: The Purpose of Schools in a Changing World.

The event will take the form of an open conversation about the risks and opportunities as education takes a new course. There is no denying that education is in a moment of flux. With disrupted labour markets, entrenched inequality, and stalled social mobility, long-standing international assumptions about education’s purpose are under strain. Meanwhile, the climate crisis and the reckoning with colonialism are pressing for wholescale reform of what schools and universities prioritise. What movements or institutions are fit to lead this change? And what form should change take? There is a need for a new narrative of what education is for: can it be global?

Meet our speakers and chair

Suchetha Bhat (@suchethab) is the CEO of Dream a Dream, a nonprofit in India working with 3 million children a year in four states across India, empowering those from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world. She is on the Advisory Board of Amani Institute and Kizazi. She mentors many young women social entrepreneurs and non-profits in India, and is an advisor to the Delhi government on the establishment of a new school board of education.

Tom Fletcher (@TFletcher) is the Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, a former UK Ambassador to the Lebanon, and founder of the movement Towards Global Learning Goals. He has been a No 10 Foreign Policy Advisor, a Visiting Professor at New York University, and authored The Naked Diplomat.

Valerie Hannon (@valeriehannon) is the author of Thrive: the Purpose of Schools in a Changing World. She was co-founder of Innovation Unit and of the Global Education Leaders’ Partnership, and has been a consultant advisor to the OECD and to various Education Ministries worldwide.

Andreas Schleicher (@SchleicherOECD) is Director for Education and Skills at the OECD. He initiated and oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and has worked for over 20 years with ministers and education leaders to improve education.

Vishal Talreja (@vishaltalreja) is the Co-founder and Trustee of Dream a Dream. He is an Ashoka Fellow, Eisenhower Fellow, Salzburg Global Fellow and a Board Member at PYE Global and Goonj. He is a Founding Member of Weaving Lab, Catalyst2030 and a Steering Committee Member of Karanga. He is also an advisor to the Delhi government in curriculum reforms.

Amelia Peterson (@AKMPeterson) is a Fellow in the Social Policy department at LSE, where she currently convenes the MSc course in Education Policy. She studies education system reforms in multiple countries around the world, with a focus on assessment and qualification reform.

More about this event

The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) is an internationally recognised centre of research and teaching in social and public policy. From its foundation in 1912 it has carried out cutting edge research on core social problems, and helped to develop policy solutions.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19