Transformation

Monika Mott

Transformation is no longer confined to the so-called “transformation countries” – if it ever was. The current crisis highlights the fact that the often-quoted effects of globalisation and technological progress are rapidly changing the economic and social frameworks in all countries.

In this quickly changing environment there is an increasing awareness that even the most excellent education system of yesterday may no longer be adequate to answer today’s challenges. Foreseeing the future, however, is a challenge at the best of times, even more so during rapid transition processes and crises.
Quick responses to increasingly unpredictable developments pose a double dilemma for education and training systems. Education reforms at the system level can only have a medium-term impact. System reforms need to find answers not only to today’s challenges but also to those of an increasingly unpredictable tomorrow. The need to respond quickly also bears the risk of a focus on ad hoc measures, since comprehensive and holistic visions for education development require time.
Especially in times of economic crisis, the primary focus is on economic recovery packages, the labour market and changing skills needs. The effects of an economic crisis on social cohesion, as well as the necessary responses of education and training systems, usually receive far less attention. Rather surprisingly, it also often happens that no priority is given to the question of where the limited but much-needed resources for change can be invested most efficiently in an education system.
The challenge of responding quickly to continuously changing environments can only be met if change becomes a core element of an education system itself, i.e. if it changes from a system that organises learning to a “learning system”. In order to achieve this goal, there have to be well-developed structures for dialogue between the internal forces of change, the famous “good practice examples” of bottom-up initiatives and the central steering of top-down policy making. Equally, education and training systems must open to the wider world, find new allies and develop innovative forms of partnership and dialogue. A precondition for this is the readiness of external partners to engage in such dialogue and share responsibility for its results.