Agenda 2030, the EU dictates the recipe for the school of the future

There European Commission has adopted the New Agenda for Innovationa programmatic document which includes some guidelines from which the member countries can draw inspiration to promote the digital transformation especially within the educational establishments, the area most in contact with future generations. Not surprisingly, a large part of the text is addressed to schools, and in particular the Italian one is called to renew and digitize itself with the intention of strengthening its competitiveness and completing those technological and green transitions that can better respond to the challenges of the present and protect the well-being of citizens. National policies dedicated to education should therefore be particularly influenced by them, so as to bring the school systems of each country of the Union closer together.

Guidelines

There New European Agenda for Innovation (Neia), elaborated in the last weeks of 2022, is not limited to the school system, but seeks primarily to improve access to funding for startups, in order to strengthen their ecosystem and narrow the distances between the world of education and working realities, introducing more and more spaces for experimentation, also of a regulatory nature. In fact, we would like to act in a structural and effective way on contemporary education already at the primary level, in such a way that teaching increasingly includes new technologies and that digital teaching is consequently increasingly favoured. The same funds as Pnrr they are guided by these needs, innovations that should not only concern tools and infrastructures, but also skills. The funds distributed by Brussels they should be dedicated to teacher training, to the promotion of free and fast connections (fiber-optic cables by the end of the next five years), and to increasingly 2.0 (if not 3.0) teaching. As written in the Goal 4 of the objectives ofUN agenda, under «Quality education» we refer to the transmission of some fundamental principles to children, through the advantages offered by digital technology. By these we mean sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, global citizenship and the enhancement of cultural diversity. By 2030girls and boys must have equal opportunities in accessing education and employment, according to their own skillswhile they must be increasingly encouraged by one sustainable lifestylemaking it a real culture. A process that will then encompass the Digital Education Action Plan, targets encompassing skills, infrastructure (5G network and making a computer with quantum technology), business (technology IoT, edge computing) and public services (increasingly inclusive for people with disabilities thanks to digital technology).

Digital citizenship and the fight against disinformation

The speech is still very general but, according to what the Directorate General of the European Commission EU policy officer for education, culture, youth, languages ​​and sport (DG EAC) teachers, educators and educational establishments are called to the forefront of promoting digital literacy through education and training . It will be a very demanding reform process, which should largely be completed as early as 2025, but the advice offered by the Commission reveals the centrality of “digital citizenship”or the ability of an individual to make conscious use of new platforms, evidently overcoming the problem of fake news, disinformation and all the crimes that can be committed on the web. An education that therefore knows how to make young people attentive citizens of the infosphere, between privacy protection and security guarantees. The Commission thus also highlights the opportunity to develop joint projects between Member States to develop the activities envisaged in the programme, also within the framework of the Pnrr. In the international framework, the initiative of a partnership for the digital decade to which States will work to keep pace with international digital progress.