Building 21st Century Education System

There is an increasing global focus, shared by national governments and non governmental
organizations, on expanding and improving educational opportunities for
children. This interest is driven largely by the belief that as the economic systems are
globalized, the health of national economies will depend increasingly on the ability of its
young adults to take on the challenges of living and working in rapidly changing
circumstances, across multiple cultures, and with large amounts of complex, dynamic
information about the world around them. An indicator of the international interest in the
topic is the broad international consensus, documented in the Millennium Development
Goals, to extend universal quality education to all children by the year 20151 in order to
meet the challenges of the 21st century. Governments around the world are struggling to
create 21st Century education systems that have the human capacity, the technical
infrastructure and the curricular resources they will need in order to provide young
people with the skills and competencies they will need to succeed in the future. At stake
is students’ ability to become active citizens and to compete in the workplace, which will
have significant implications for national competitiveness in countries at all levels of
development (OECD,2002).