1. Education is a human right and a public good. But the growing commercialization and privatization in and of the education sector represents the greatest threat to the achievement of quality free public education for all.
2. We live in a post-industrial world but our education systems still cater to an industrialized world. That is, western education systems were designed to meet the needs of an industrializing world and have never really been restructured to meet 21st Century needs. This no longer works in a world in which workers are increasingly expected to develop their own jobs rather than join established professions and in which job security is low.
3. We must also realize that education should support the development of key competencies required for living in the 21st Century and that we must be able to find sustainable solutions to the issues we face. Creativity and critical thinking will be vital for human survival.
4. While individuals benefit from education, a critical purpose of public education is to develop citizenship and shared social understanding. That is, the collective purpose is as important as the individual purpose.
5. The underlying challenge is to shift the conception of education as the development of "work ready" human capital and to return to broader conceptions of the purpose of education which gives greater emphasis to the development of the whole person, communities and society. Schools should enable the work of learning in relation to the four Delors pillars (developed by the Delors Commission for UNESCO in 1966) for education (see appendix).
6. Schools shape culture and community and that, in many ways, the collective is as important as the work of all in enabling individual learning and development. This work is more than a mere aspiration - there are examples of students leading change through networks of schools committed to rekindling the purposes of 'school' and its place in an increasingly precarious world ^[21].
7. The OECD Education 2030 agenda and the related "learning compass" will reshape educational policy and practice world-wide, as the OECD seeks to define both what education should focus on and then measure whether it is achieving what the OECD matters most.
8. Teachers are the core to learning, whether in school, college or university. The attempt to marginalize their role, to regulate and control their individual practice and the profession collectively is counter-productive. Technology is a tool that should be leveraged at appropriate times and in appropriate ways, but should not drive the instruction.
9. The role of the teacher as a professional is under significant threat. Whether this is from the rapid advances of technologies (the AI can transform learning narrative), new public management or from privatization and the work of organizations like Bridge Academies or ARK Schools the latter of which uses highly scripted lessons which removes the need for a certified teacher. What is at stake is the gradual loss of a shared understanding of the purpose of school and the abduction of purpose by bodies which are not accountable for their actions.
10. Efforts to re-think public education will likely trigger a push back from those who profit from the current education system.

INPUT REQUEST #4: Assumptions

• Which assumptions are unclear to you?
• Which assumptions do you strongly disagree with?
• What assumptions do you think should be added to the list?