Public asked to vote on the educational challenges of the future

The public are being asked for their views about education in an online Government research programme.

Beyond Current Horizons will investigate the range of ways in which education might need to change in light of potential changes in society and technology.

The project is being conducted by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and not-for-profit educational organisation, Futurelab. Anyone with an interest in education and how to best prepare children for the future beyond 2025 is encouraged to offer their views on what they think will be the big issues and questions.

Initially people are being asked to vote online by 25 February for the one question in a series of randomly generated pairs that they deem to pose the greatest challenge to education.

This Future Challenges for Education Power League includes questions such as, ‘What will we need to know in 2025 and beyond?’ or ‘How will new technologies influence our understanding of identity and community?’

Each of the questions voted for is then ranked in order of preference. The order of the items changes each time someone casts a vote. The often unexpected nature of the pairs and the resulting leagues makes a good starting point for discussion.

For example; why is this challenge more influential? Why is this issue more important than that?

If people want to comment on the challenges or raise their own questions they can send an email to: beyondcurrenthorizons@futurelab.org.uk

The Beyond Current Horizons Expert Advisory Group, which includes researchers and policy makers, will meet at the end of February 2008 to set the agenda for the rest of the 12-month programme

This will be based on five significant questions for education that have been put together from the results of the Power League votes, online consultation, public workshops and commissioned research papers.

The Beyond Current Horizons website will detail the latest progress and display information about the consultation tools and online debates the public can take part in throughout 2008.