ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

Submitted By : Shahrukh Mazhar

Submitted To: DEAR SIR MUHAMMAD ADNAN SAEED

COURSECODE: 0831

Level: M.A (SPEACIAL. EDU) Spring(2022)

ID :19PRP01370

Foundations of Education

Assignment No. 01
Q.1 Explain each Islamic foundation of education in your own words.
ANS:
Education in Islam is twofold: acquiring intellectual knowledge (through the application of reason and logic)
and developing spiritual knowledge (derived from divine revelation and spiritual experience). According to the
worldview of Islam, provision in education must be made equally for both. Islam has, from its inception, placed
a high premium on education and has enjoyed a long and rich intellectual tradition. Knowledge ('ilm) occupies a
significant position within Islam, as evidenced by the more than 800 references to it in Islam's most revered
book, the Koran. The importance of education is repeatedly emphasized in the Koran with frequent injunctions,
such as "God will exalt those of you who believe and those who have knowledge to high degrees" (58:11), "O
my Lord! Increase me in knowledge" (20:114), and "As God has taught him, so let him write" (2:282). Such
verses provide a forceful stimulus for the Islamic community to strive for education and learning.
Islamic education is uniquely different from other types of educational theory and practice largely because of
the all-encompassing influence of the Koran. The Koran serves as a comprehensive blueprint for both the

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individual and society and as the primary source of knowledge. The advent of the Koran in the seventh century
was quite revolutionary for the predominantly illiterate Arabian society. Arab society had enjoyed a rich oral
tradition, but the Koran was considered the word of God and needed to be organically interacted with by means
of reading and reciting its words. Hence, reading and writing for the purpose of accessing the full blessings of
the Koran was an aspiration for most Muslims. Thus, education in Islam unequivocally derived its origins from
a symbiotic relationship with religious instruction.
Thus, in this way, Islamic education began. Pious and learned Muslims (mu' allim or mudarris), dedicated to
making the teachings of the Koran more accessible to the Islamic community, taught the faithful in what came
to be known as the kuttāb (plural, katātīb). The kuttāb could be located in a variety of venues: mosques, private
homes, shops, tents, or even out in the open. Historians are uncertain as to when the katātīb were first
established, but with the widespread desire of the faithful to study the Koran, katātīb could be found in virtually
every part of the Islamic empire by the middle of the eighth century. The kuttāb served a vital social function as
the only vehicle for formal public instruction for primary-age children and continued so until Western models of
education were introduced in the modern period. Even at present, it has exhibited remarkable durability and
continues to be an important means of religious instruction in many Islamic countries.
The curriculum of the kuttāb was primarily directed to young male children, beginning as early as age four, and
was centered on Koranic studies and on religious obligations such as ritual ablutions, fasting, and prayer. The
focus during the early history of Islam on the education of youth reflected the belief that raising children with
correct principles was a holy obligation for parents and society. As Abdul Tibawi wrote in 1972, the mind of the
child was believed to be "like a white clean paper, once anything is written on it, right or wrong, it will be
difficult to erase it or superimpose new writing upon it" (p. 38). The approach to teaching children was strict,
and the conditions in which young students learned could be quite harsh. Corporal punishment was often used
to correct laziness or imprecision. Memorization of the Koran was central to the curriculum of the kuttāb, but
little or no attempt was made to analyze and discuss the meaning of the text. Once students had memorized the
greater part of the Koran, they could advance to higher stages of education, with increased complexity of
instruction. Western analysts of the kuttāb system usually criticize two areas of its pedagogy: the limited range
of subjects taught and the exclusive reliance on memorization. The contemporary kuttāb system still emphasizes
memorization and recitation as important means of learning. The value placed on memorization during students'
early religious training directly influences their approaches to learning when they enter formal education offered
by the modern state. A common frustration of modern educators in the Islamic world is that while their students
can memorize copious volumes of notes and textbook pages, they often lack competence in critical analysis and
ind During the golden age of the Islamic empire (usually defined as a period between the tenth and thirteenth
centuries), when western Europe was intellectually backward and stagnant, Islamic scholarship flourished with
an impressive openness to the rational sciences, art, and even literature. It was during this period that the
Islamic world made most of its contributions to the scientific and artistic world. Ironically, Islamic scholars

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preserved much of the knowledge of the Greeks that had been prohibited by the Christian world. Other
outstanding contributions were made in areas of chemistry, botany, physics, mineralogy, mathematics, and
astronomy, as many Muslim thinkers regarded scientific truths as tools for accessing religious truth.
Gradually the open and vigorous spirit of enquiry and individual judgment (ijtihād) that characterized the
golden age gave way to a more insular, unquestioning acceptance (taqlīd) of the traditional corpus of
authoritative knowledge. By the thirteenth century, according to Aziz Talbani, the 'ulama' (religious scholars)
had become "self-appointed interpreters and guardians of religious knowledge.… learning was confined to the
transmission of traditions and dogma, and [was] hostile to research and scientific inquiry" (p. 70). The mentality
of taqlīd reigned supreme in all matters, and religious scholars condemned all other forms of inquiry and
research. Exemplifying the taqlīd mentality, Burhän al-Din al-Zarnüji wrote during the thirteenth century,
"Stick to ancient things while avoiding new things" and "Beware of becoming engrossed in those disputes
which come about after one has cut loose from the ancient authorities" (pp. 28, 58). Much of what was written
after the thirteenth century lacked originality, and it consisted mostly of commentaries on existing canonical
works without adding any substantive new ideas. The lethal combination of taqlīd and foreign invasion begin
Despite its glorious legacy of earlier periods, the Islamic world seemed unable to respond either culturally or
educationally to the onslaught of Western advancement by the eighteenth century. One of the most damaging
aspects of European colonialism was the deterioration of indigenous cultural norms through secularism. With its
veneration of human reason over divine revelation and its insistence on separation of religion and state,
secularism is anathema to Islam, in which all aspects of life, spiritual or temporal, are interrelated as a
harmonious whole. At the same time, Western institutions of education, with their pronounced secular/religious
dichotomy, were infused into Islamic countries in order to produce functionaries to feed the bureaucratic and
administrative needs of the state. The early modernizers did not fully realize the extent to which secularized
education fundamentally conflicted with Islamic thought and traditional lifestyle. Religious education was to
remain a separate and personal responsibility, having no place in public education. If Muslim students desired
religious training, they could supplement their existing education with moral instruction in traditional religious
schools–the kuttāb. As a consequence, the two differing education systems evolved independently with little or
no official interface.
\Q.2 Describe the relationship between philosophy and education.
ANS:
Education is the application of the fundamental principles of philosophy. Philosophy gives ideals, values and
principles. Education works out those ideals, values and principles.
Education without philosophy is like a tourist who knows the name of the place where he wishes to go but does
not know how to find the place. The existence of education is due to philosophy and in the same way the
existence of philosophy is due to education. When we define education as the modification of behaviour, the
direction in which, modification to be carried out is determined by philosophy. According to Fichte, “the art of

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education will never attain complete clarity in itself without philosophy”. A perennial conception of the nature
of philosophy is that it is chiefly concerned with the clarification of concepts, such as knowledge, truth, justice,
beauty, mind, meaning, and existence. One of the tasks of the philosophy of education, accordingly, has been
the elucidation of key educational concepts, including the concept of education itself, as well as related concepts
such as teaching, learning, schooling, child rearing, and indoctrination. Although this clarificatory task has
sometimes been pursued overzealously—especially during the period of so-called ordinary language analysis in
the 1960s and ’70s, when much work in the field seemed to lose sight of the basic normative issues to which
these concepts were relevant—it remains the case that work in the philosophy of education, as in other areas of
philosophy, must rely at least in part on conceptual clarification. Such analysis seeks not necessarily, or only, to
identify the particular meanings of charged or contested concepts but also to identify alternative meanings,
render ambiguities explicit, reveal hidden metaphysical, normative, or cultural assumptions, illuminate the
consequences of alternative interpretations, explore the semantic connections between related concepts, and
elucidate the inferential relationships obtaining among the philosophical claims and theses in which they are
embedded. The issue of legitimate authority has been raised recently in the United States in connection with the
practice of standardized testing, which some critics believe discriminates against the children of some racial,
cultural, religious, or ethnic groups (because the test questions rely, implicitly or explicitly, on various
culturally specific cues or assumptions that members of some groups may not understand or accept). In such
controversial cases, what power should members of allegedly disadvantaged groups have to protect their
children from discrimination or injustice? The answer to this question, as to the others raised above, may
depend in part on the status of the particular school as public (state-supported) or private. But it can also be
asked whether private schools should enjoy more authority with respect to curricular matters than public
schools do, particularly in cases where they receive state subsidies of one form or another.
These questions are primarily matters of ethics and political philosophy, but they also require attention
to metaphysics (e.g., how are “groups” to be individuated and understood?), philosophy of science (e.g., is
“intelligent design” a genuinely scientific theory?), psychology (e.g., do IQ tests discriminate against members
of certain minority groups?), and other areas of philosophy, social science, and law.
The issue of legitimate authority has been raised recently in the United States in connection with the practice of
standardized testing, which some critics believe discriminates against the children of some racial, cultural,
religious, or ethnic groups (because the test questions rely, implicitly or explicitly, on various culturally specific
cues or assumptions that members of some groups may not understand or accept). In such controversial cases,
what power should members of allegedly disadvantaged groups have to protect their children
from discrimination or injustice? The answer to this question, as to the others raised above, may depend in part
on the status of the particular school as public (state-supported) or private. But it can also be asked whether
private schools should enjoy more authority with respect to curricular matters than public schools do,
particularly in cases where they receive state subsidies of one form or another.

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Philosophy determines the direction of education:
Education means the modification of the child’s native behaviour. The problem is in which direction this
change should be carried out and what should be the standards and values, to strive for. This problem is solved
by philosophy which points out the way to be followed by the educator in the modification of the child’s
behaviour and determines the goals of life. Philosophy, thus, gives direction to education.
Education is the dynamic side of philosophy
The function of philosophy is to seek relational approach to any phenomenon. Education is the processes by
which the findings made by any philosopher can be propagated to the next generation. Every philosophical
thought are put into practise by education. Philosophical principles are lifeless without the help of education.
Therefore education is the practical side of philosophy.
Philosophy determines various aspects of education
Education is a very important social domain that has many complex issues which have a great philosophical
interest. Some of the very important problems faced by education are the relationship of education and state,
curriculum construction and administration, education and economic system, discipline, etc. It is here that that
philosophy plays an important role in providing direction to education on the above mentioned issues as well as
providing a theory of knowledge for education to work upon. The influence of philosophy can also be seen in
the conception of methods of teaching, the role of teachers, discipline, textbook, school administration,
evaluation etc. The criteria of judgment everywhere are determined by philosophy.
Great philosophers are great educationists
Great philosophers have also been great educationists. The great philosophers
like Gandhi, Tagore, Aurobindo, Radhakrishnan, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Comenius, Froebel, Dewey
and Rousseau have been great educators. Socrates, who left no written word, became a famous philosopher with
the help of his admirers and disciples like Plato and Aristophanes. He became an active educationist and one of
the great teachers of all times. Socrates gave to the world the ‘method of questioning and cross-questioning’ in
teaching. Rousseau suggested that education should follow nature. Gandhi propagated the scheme of Basic
Education. Ross rightly said, “If further agreement is needed to establish the fundamental dependence of
education on philosophy, it may be found that all great philosophers have been great educationists.”
Q.3 How can we use philosophy to improve our system of education?
ANS:
Many aims have been proposed by philosophers and other educational theorists; they include the cultivation of
curiosity and the disposition to inquire; the fostering of creativity; the production of knowledge and of
knowledgeable students; the enhancement of understanding; the promotion of moral thinking, feeling, and
action; the enlargement of the imagination; the fostering of growth, development, and self-realization; the
fulfillment of potential; the cultivation of “liberally educated” persons; the overcoming of provincialism and
close-mindedness; the development of sound judgment; the cultivation of docility and obedience to authority;

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the fostering of autonomy; the maximization of freedom, happiness, or self-esteem; the development of care,
concern, and related attitudes and dispositions; the fostering of feelings of community, social solidarity,
citizenship, and civic-mindedness; the production of good citizens; the “civilizing” of students; the protection of
students from the deleterious effects of civilization; the development of piety, religious faith, and spiritual
fulfillment; the fostering of ideological purity; the cultivation of political awareness and action;
the integration or balancing of the needs and interests of the individual student and the larger society; and the
fostering of skills and dispositions constitutive of rationality or critical thinking.
All such proposed aims require careful articulation and defense, and all have been subjected to
sustained criticism. Both contemporary and historical philosophers of education have devoted themselves, at
least in part, to defending a particular conception of the aims of education or to criticizing the conceptions of
others. The great range of aims that have been proposed makes vivid the philosopher of education’s need to
appeal to other areas of philosophy, to other disciplines (e.g., psychology, anthropology, sociology, and the
physical sciences), and to educational practice itself. Given that consideration of education’s proper aims is of
fundamental importance for the intelligent guidance of educational activities, it is unfortunate that contemporary
discussions of educational policy rarely address the matter.
These questions are primarily matters of ethics and political philosophy, but they also require attention
to metaphysics (e.g., how are “groups” to be individuated and understood?), philosophy of science (e.g., is
“intelligent design” a genuinely scientific theory?), psychology (e.g., do IQ tests discriminate against members
of certain minority groups?), and other areas of philosophy, social science, and law.
Critical thinking
Many educators and educational scholars have championed the educational aim of critical thinking. It is not
obvious what critical thinking is, and philosophers of education accordingly have developed accounts of critical
thinking that attempt to state what it is and why it is valuable—i.e., why educational systems should aim
to cultivate it in students. These accounts generally (though not universally) agree that critical thinkers share at
least the following two characteristics: (1) they are able to reason well—i.e., to construct and evaluate various
reasons that have been or can be offered for or against candidate beliefs, judgments, and actions; and (2) they
are disposed or inclined to be guided by reasons so evaluated—i.e., actually to believe, judge, and act in
accordance with the results of such reasoned evaluations. Beyond this level of agreement lie a range
of contentious issues.
Teachers are mentors and play an active role in inculcating independent thinking in students. However, to do
that as a teacher, you must have a teaching philosophy of your own. Students always look up to their teacher
and therefore, it becomes necessary for you to have thoughts to inspire them. Here are specific reasons why you
should Study Philosophy of Education if you are a teacher.
Helps to Decipher The Path of Learning
Teaching philosophy has been defined as the map, which provides directions to move ahead.

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One may feel lost without a map. In the same way, you are going to be missed while teaching if a specific path
is not decided.
Hence, a map is always needed to make informed movements.
It is not possible to make students learn something until the teacher knows why and how he/she wants to teach.
Once you know your path, you will be helping your students to plan to reach their destinations.
Affects the Society
Teachers are termed as the future makers of the community. People like you are the ones who help students
choose different professions and identities.
A teacher can leave a profound impact on students and help them make independent decisions in the near
future.
The core values that your students learn from you today are going to be applied and used in society as they
grow up.
A solid philosophical background will help ensure that these values are all positive.
If you believe in breaking stereotypes, there are high chances your students will follow the same philosophical
path. If your philosophy is accepting the already existing theories, rather than questioning them, your students
might follow your path.
Understanding the philosophy of education will teach them the need to know the whys.
Along with the intellectual development of the students, it will also improve the standards of our society and
make us more rational.
To Be in Their Shoes
By learning philosophy, a teacher would be able to view and analyze from the perspective of their students.
Best of all, a teacher would be able to analyze his/her actions and understand the positives and negatives of their
methods.
Just as if it helps students, it helps them as well. In other words, the educational curriculum consisting of
philosophy contributes to discovering the mind of the learner (student), thus aid him/her in offering experiences
and opportunities for cultivating his/her potential abilities.
To Avoid Being Judgemental
Philosophy of education also teaches a teacher the concept of not prejudicing the personality of each student.
Remember that you need to consider all students equal.
But, this should not affect the unique potential and capabilities of each student.
As educators, you are required to teach creativity, autonomy, and curiosity to all students without compromising
their intellectual levels.
The idea is to avoid giving up on a pupil, who is a low-level learner. Philosophy teaches you that ideology,
where you train with an unbiased attitude.
To Teach The Concept of Unification

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Philosophy also teaches about unifying each pupil and the teacher as one body to ensure harmony.
The idea is to work together to create a better citizen, who diligently serves his community and keeps check on
his/her morality.
Through the philosophy of education, teachers can understand how to deal with the students and unite them as
one.
Even the students will then be able to confidently speak to the teacher as if he/she is their friend.
The Verdict
Through philosophy, you can ensure that your student not only retains his academic knowledge from all his
completed grades but also develop a sense of humane values and ethics.
Q.4 Write notes on:
a. Advanced organizers ANS:
'Information overload.' What comes to mind when you think of those words? Have you ever experienced
information overload when studying for an exam or even just when sitting in class? Sometimes learning
everything that's required can be overwhelming and seem nearly impossible. Even if you are provided with all
of the information, it can be hard to remember everything.
This is a challenge that teachers face regularly. We must provide our students with large amounts of information
in a way that helps them understand, retain and remember it. There are a number of strategies that teachers use
to do this, but the one we'll discuss in this lesson is the use of advance organizers.
An advance organizer is a tool used to introduce the lesson topic and illustrate the relationship between what the
students are about to learn and the information they have already learned. They are used during expository
instruction, which is the use of an expert to present information in a way that makes it easy for students to make
connections from one concept to the next.
By using an advance organizer to link the new information to old information, the new information can be
remembered more easily. There are three basic purposes of advance organizers. First, they direct students'
attention to what is important in the upcoming lesson. Second, they highlight relationships among ideas that will
be presented. Third, they remind students of relevant information that they already have. An advance organizer
is relevant introductory materials presented in advance in any format of text, graphics, or hypermedia (Ausubel,
1968). Instructors may use an advance organizer to present a framework for module content
Ausubel’s idea of an “advance organizer” is to relate what a student already knows to the new content to be
learned and thus increase retention. Advance organizers should be at a higher level of abstraction, generality,
and inclusiveness than the content to be presented. Although not technically advance organizers, some faculty
may choose to provide overviews, outlines, statements of objectives, pre-instructional questions, etc. for similar
reasons.

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Chances are good that your child’s teachers are already using different kinds of advance organizers. You may
also want to try some of these strategies at home when you’re helping your child get ready to begin an
assignment. Here are a few types of advance organizers.
• Expository advance organizers give students a broad idea of the lesson’s purpose before the lesson
begins. For example, a teacher may tell students what the lesson’s goals are: “We’ve talked about
what habitats are and why some animals prefer to live in different places than other animals do. Our
goal today is to learn about the four layers of a tropical rainforest and which animals live in each of
those different layers.” Teachers often also write the goals on the board.
• Narrative advance organizers involve storytelling. At the beginning of the class, the teacher might
tell an interesting story that relates to important concepts in the lesson: “I’m going to tell you a story
about a little tree frog who climbed from the forest floor up to the very top of the tallest tree in the
rainforest.”
• Skimming is another type of advance organizer. A teacher may ask students to skim over a reading,
focusing on highlighted information, such as captions or chapter headings. That makes them familiar
with the material before they read it more thoroughly. Younger students might take a “picture walk”
through the reading.
• Graphic organizers structure information visually or in pictures. They’re usually one-page forms
with lots of blank areas so they’re easy for students to skim before the lesson. For example, a teacher
might give students a simple drawing of a tree with lines marking each of the four layers of the
rainforest. As the lesson goes on, the students can fill in the graphic organizer with the names of
the different layers and of the animals that live in them.
b. Analogies
An analogy is something that shows how two things are alike, but with the ultimate goal of making a point
about this comparison.
The purpose of an analogy is not merely to show, but also to explain. For this reason, an analogy is more
complex than a simile or a metaphor, which aim only to show without explaining. (Similes and metaphors
can be used to make an analogy, but usually analogies have additional information to get their point across.)
In writing, there are two predominant types of analogies:
Analogies that identify identical relationships. The modern word “analogy” actually comes from the
ancient Greek word for “proportionality,” and Greek scholars used analogies to directly illustrate similar
relationships between two pairs of words, often for the purpose of logical argument. These analogies take
the form “A is to B as C is to D.” An example of an analogy that identifies an identical relationship is
“Black is to white as on is to off.” In this example, the relationship between black and white (that they’re

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antonyms, or opposites) is exactly comparable to the relationship between on and off (on an d off are also
opposites).
Analogies that identify shared abstraction. This type of analogy compares two things that are technically
unrelated, in order to draw comparisons between an attribute or pattern they share. For instance, consider the
analogy, “Raising children is like gardening—nurture them and be patient.” This example compares the
pattern that is similar in both raising children and gardening. This type of analogy is useful in writing
because it can help make abstract ideas (like raising children) more concrete by drawing on readers’
background knowledge of familiar images (like gardening).
Q.5 Discuss the importance of educational aims and objectives to bring socio-economic changes in the
country.
It is proved that a country’s development is primarily based on its people and its resources. However, it ultimately
depends on the people only, as to what extent they can use the scarce resources efficiently in order to achieve a
rapid rate of development and breakthroughs in innovation. As people play the most important role in shaping the
status of the country; education is responsible for shaping a person. Therefore, education is the backbone of any
country, it plays a crucial role in technological developments and imparts various skills, values, and awareness. If a
country has a higher literacy rate, it will lead to a lower unemployment rate and greater GDP growth. Today,
countries face various issues including terrorism, discrimination, global warming, poverty, and gender inequality.
Proper education for everyone can eradicate these problems from its roots and would lead to a better country with
higher standards of living. In the long term, education reaps greater benefits, educated kids today will develop a
very civilized and moral society tomorrow. The human mind has a great potential to achieve radical developments
in society. To reap the benefits of the human mind, education is the most important step to work on. It is an
investment which is crucial for development of every being. Education has the ability to transform a person and
provide a perspective to see their lives from a different view. Some might argue that health is a more important step
for the development of a country as only a healthy population could be efficient and productive. However,
education is required to be healthy and disease-free. Education imparts awareness which is essential for being
healthy and productive. Education provides solutions to major problems and gradually has the potential to eliminate
all the concerns which every person face today. Education gives the ability to turn information into knowledge
which is essential for solving problems and developing analytical skills. An educated person possesses various
diverse skills, is healthy, and knows what’s best for him/her and the society. Proper education eradicates crime
rates, poverty, unemployment, diseases, etc. from the country. Moreover, education is fundamental for peace and
prosperity. Government of each country should emphasise on education. There must be laws for mandatory
education till certain age which could make every individual aware of the basic living in society. Government could
also either subsidize or provide free education to the parents who cannot afford to send their children to school.
Many countries do not promote education for women despite the fact that they can be 50% of the total workforce.
United

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Nations have emphasised on the importance of education and one of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is
to provide universal primary quality education to all. It is estimated that today, 250 million children do not have
access to primary education. These children are the future and will be responsible for the development of the
nation. Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
Countries today compete on literacy rates which ultimately leads to higher economic growth and economic
development. Education has great potential to change the world when a society is educated, there is a great
allocative and productive efficiency with rapid rates of development. No one can take education away from a
person, it will always help and reap benefits. Parents should provide their children with best possible education as
an investment which will only benefit the whole society in the future. Thus, education is the most important step in
the development of a country and everyone must promote it to the greatest levels.

The expansion of formal education, which was part of the emergence of the nation states and modern
economies, is one of the most visible indicators of social progress. In its expansion, education created a
complex web of institutions distributed according to different paths along the life course, from early education
through the school cycles to the final stages of higher education, continuing with the provision of forms of
lifelong education. This web of institutions is subject to breaks and cleavages that reflect their diverse and
multiple historical origins and purposes and the asynchronous developments in different regions. From primary
schooling, education institutions grew horizontally (by learning fields, subjects, or occupations) and vertically
(by levels and credentials.) The allocation of children and young people to different tracks and institutions, by a
mixture of choice and assignment, is a core process in formal education that often reflects and reproduces
preexisting inequalities. The chapter presents the main actions needed to allow education to fulfill its promise to
promote social progress considering the four purposes of education. On a global level more research informed
policy is required and a balanced approach to educational reform, including teacher education, by putting more
emphasis on the civic and humanistic purposes. Governance structures that are flexible, participatory, and
accountable considering the political and social context are recommended. The new agenda of Sustainable
Development Goals for 2030 established in 2015 calls for a new cooperative paradigm based on the concept of
“full global partnership” and the principle of “no one will be left behind.” Sustainable Development Goal 4 for
Education aims “to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. This provides
a broad framework for education’s contribution to social progress. To achieve this, it is necessary: (1) to expand
access and improve the quality of early childhood education, as a precondition for life-long educational success
in all its goals; (2) to improve the quality of schools, including in learners’ direct interactions with their peer
groups, educators and the surroundings; in institutional characteristics such as group size, student-teacher ratio,
teacher qualifications and spatial and material conditions, and in the provision of a meaningful and relevant
curriculum; (3) to enhance the role of educators, considering that teachers are not just carriers of knowledge and
information, but role models that have a significant impact on children’s dispositions towards learning and life

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more generally; (4) to make higher and vocational education more inclusive and socially relevant, thereby
enhancing the opportunities for students of all sectors of society to further their education in a meaningful and
practical ways, eliminating social and cultural restrictions to access and reducing the dividing lines between
high and low prestige and esteem between institutions and careers. Additionally, appropriate use of the
opportunities created by the new digital technologies is recommended. These are not a magic bullet that will
replace existing educational institutions and create a new learning world. But they can be powerful instruments
to improve the quality and relevance of education and its contribution to social progress.

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