Revolutionizing Education: C20 Summit Session (Highlights & Takeaways)

Education has always been an important matter in our family. My father’s dream was to establish a school; to call it the “Sunshine School”. Walking on the same path, I also dreamt of a nursery-school-university that nurtures and assesses natural skills and talents instead of grades. In 2016, I founded R-School to create a fun learning system where everyone can have a say and enjoy learning together.

Later, I wrote an article about the nightmare of the current schooling system: The Chase, which is available in Arabic, English, and French. I also led the ‘Stop Stealing Dreams’ Translation Project into Arabic.

And now, the C20 Summit: another major stepstone towards raising awareness and realizing this dream.

I was honored to present a topic that I have devoted so much of my life. The guest speakers’ passionate responses and comments from the audience let me know that I wasn’t the only one who felt strongly about this topic.

The session I organized revolved around revolutionizing modern educational systems by incorporating natural talents and altering assessments to create a genuinely humanitarian, values-based approach.

The C20 Summit was the perfect setting for such a talk. This global platform is designed to lift the voices of leaders and change-makers who see areas of needed change. The Summit allows thousands of minds to gather and apply their personal experiences and knowledge to issues plaguing societies worldwide. The C20 Summit organizers work incredibly hard to ensure that every voice is heard. I was incredibly grateful to have such a platform from which to share this so important message.

If you couldn’t catch the live session, this summary will give you a gist of the issue and the talk highlights. We also used two videos. The first video shows the current state of education (Meet Joe). While the second presents the potential for a post-revolutionized educational system (Meet Cyrus). I created them for the C20 Summit; you can watch both videos here.

I’ll sum up the most important takeaways here and provide additional insight into some questions from the audience, along with future directions for this educational revolution.

Joining me in the session (7th of October 2020) were the following incredible guest speakers:

·        Jared Yeo, Co-founder, and CEO of The Global Citizen Education Group

·        Dr. Samia Kazi, Social Entrepreneur, and Educational Policy Leader

·        Maryam A. Sullivan, Educator, and Celebrated Author

·        Saeeda Ahmed, UNGSII Ambassador and Founding Director of Partnerships UK

Indeed, it required a team of guest speakers with precisely this varied global experience and education to discuss such a relevant and crucial re-structuring project. It’s a project designed to educate young minds and raise global citizens who are humans first, not just skilled professionals.

What is the problem?

My platform was straightforward: the modern educational system of rote memorization, uniform curriculums, and outdated assessments is broken. It fails to align with societal goals, and worse, it tries to force young minds into cookie-cutters with the goal of uniformity of thought and high-earning potential.

We want the children of the future to be:

·        Humans with strong beliefs, values, natural talents, skills, and growth mindsets.

·        Global citizens whose values help them to be useful in their surrounding environments.

·        Big-hearted people who don’t discriminate, understand others’ rights, accept outsiders, and those with unique needs.

·        Functional adults with emotional intelligence, financial literacy, and a drive to improve the world around them.

“Of course, the world needs doctors, engineers, and technicians- but it needs humans first.” -Rasha Alajouz

Our session brings this conversation to a broader audience; by considering both the “why” and the “how” of this educational revolution.

Saeeda started us off with a strong sentiment that captures the root of the issue: “People are not economic outputs; they are humans with feelings, with emotions, with values! And we need to nurture those values and make them feel self-worth. The current educational system is almost empty of these initiatives…the system hasn’t been built for the well-being of the individual.”

Old is not always Gold: Shortcomings of Modern Educational Assessments.

One trend became apparent across all of the dialogue our speakers, and even the audience, shared. Test scores and traditional assessment methods are the most widely-used indicators of individual success for students- and this should not be the case! Across the world, educators are speaking out against the tradition of ranking student success and even “worthiness” or “aptitude to succeed in adult life,” with children’s ability to sit at desks, memorize information, and regurgitate it.

What an absurd notion! Clearly, this assessment approach is sorely lacking. It does not align with the larger goal of creating humans first- caring, compassionate global citizens who’d give back to their communities and pursue their passions.

This was echoed by Samia, whose unique perspectives from early childhood education were illuminating: “Children can’t be silenced. Their views on assessment really matter…to summarize it in three terms, we need a more child-centered, holistic, and inclusive approach to assessment.”

Is an education revolution needed?

“If school’s function is to create the workers, we need to fuel our economy, we need to change school because the workers we need have changed as well.” – Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams

The current goals of modern educational systems were summarized accurately by Saeeda: “We’re trying to turn humans into robots, while we’re trying to make artificial intelligence as capable as humans.”

Obviously, a new framework is needed. The current educational systems do not support the changes we hope to see in future generations. Our assessment systems are failing. Maryam clearly outlines these shortcomings: “There is a lack of literature, a lack of curriculum, a lack of assessment that reaches our students in a way that is authentic and equitable. We need new models; we need new thinkers; we need a new understanding of the competencies of our students in this global world.”

Where do we begin?

Part of the solution? According to Jared, shifting the curriculum towards global citizenship is the first step. “When we work with students on global citizenship education, we get them to think beyond [academic] subjects; to see how they fit into the larger picture as they become a global citizen. They get the sense that their education means much more, and they get to see how the content they are studying is actually going to good use.”

Where do teachers fit in?

But this must also be supported by providing educators with the proper tools to see this revolution through, as Samia explains: “We can’t introduce new strategies for assessment if we don’t have very highly skilled teachers. The backbone of making [this revolution] happen is supporting teachers with better education, better resources, and more support through coaching or mentoring.”

Indeed, we shouldn’t pressure teachers as if it’s their fault that the system is failing. Teachers are a part of the system, and their job is to educate and help assess children in a better way based on their teaching experience. They don’t create the policy: that’s the policymakers’ job.

Therefore, if the educational system’s problems don’t fall on the teacher’s shoulders, the issue is clearly farther up the chain, with policymakers whose experiences and viewpoints are outdated and narrow. As Maryam reminds us, there needs to be an increase in these legislative panels’ diversity to truly represent every student and educator’s needs in the classroom.

This is also supported by Samia and Jared’s statements, both of whom made it clear that this revolution must begin from the ground up.

Solution Proposed: Creation of an E20

It is clear that these notions are part of a much larger conversation that needs to take place internationally. To address these issues in modern education, it is proposed that a new platform that integrates all stakeholders and involved parties be created. In the manner that there is already a C20, a B20, an L20, and others, we propose creating an E20. Education is an issue that shouldn’t just be included in a working group or task force. It requires a unique platform where all stakeholders, including children, teens, university students, academic professors, teachers, admins, and other parties, collaborate. These stakeholders from all different parts of education are stronger together. They require a channel where the ideas of all can be heard and documented.

Do you agree with this approach to revolutionizing education? How do you think we can begin to affect change across the board?

Please help us spread the word to policymakers! Spread the word with social media hashtags (#E20, #E20Summit #RevolutizingEducation #C20 #C20Summit #G20). Please help us support the creation of an E20 Summit.

You can read this article in Arabic, here.