t UNGA 80 last September, we gathered the world’s education leaders for the first of five annual Education Futures Forums leading to the 2030 horizon. There are now only four years to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and most urgently, on SDG 4: Quality Education for All.
As the leaders of a global diplomacy and policy organization, we are prioritizing SDG 4. While all the SDGs are critical targets, education is the foundation on which every goal stands. From health and equality to innovation, sustainability, and even peace, a future that arrives well relies on how education meets this moment.
Our education systems are straining under the pressures of a rapidly changing world. The shelf life of skills is shrinking, the nature of work is mutating, and even the purpose of education is evolving. The old questions of access and attainment—who gets to learn and how—are being replaced by deeper ones: who controls learning, who benefits from it, and how can it evolve as fast as the world around it?
The very world that education prepares us for is becoming more precarious and difficult to navigate. Our old measures of foundational knowledge, literacy and numeracy, are not enough to prepare young people for the future.
A New Basis for Education
For education to prepare our young people for the future, systems need an expansion of what literacies (or competencies) are deemed “foundational.” These are literacies for a new age, clustered around the capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn. They are vitally important to a successful education transformation.
Transforming education has been front and center on the global agenda since 2022 and, to an impressive extent, has been youth–led. Success stories scattered in pockets around the world offer both hope and regionally contextualized lessons. Thinkers and practitioners everywhere are producing insights into what works, how, and where. Yet real transformation of education systems remains elusive.
The good news is that we have a to–do list of what we need—and government commitments in place—to transform our education systems. What has been missing is the shape of education's future, a shared vision of how commitments are met and what successful transformation looks like in practice as compared to a set of commitments. How do we implement transformative policies and initiatives at a time when public education funding is dwindling rapidly? How do we identify all the stakeholders who should be part of this transformation and get them working in the same direction? Where is the confidence to move beyond gradual, safe, ineffective reform to the truly transformative? How do we tick off the items on our education transformation to–do list in meaningful ways? To paraphrase NCEE’s CEO Vicki Phillips at our Education Futures Forum during the 2025 UN General Assembly meetings: How do we stop tinkering and start transforming?
Young people are already leading this transformation; they are the protagonists co–creating what comes next alongside governments and multilateral institutions. The task before us is clear: to match their imagination with action and pragmatism, and to ensure that as the future rushes toward us, it arrives well for everyone.
Toward Collaborative Creation
For more than two years, we have, through our World in 2050 platform, explored how collective intelligence can transform convenings into engines for collaboration and creation. Our aim has been twofold: first, to forge new connections and a shared understanding among experts, innovators, and practitioners who might otherwise never meet. We call these ‘uncommon collaborations,’ and they are the core of our mission at World in 2050 to help the future arrive well. Second, through deliberate curation that values diversity of perspective, we have sought to evolve dialogue beyond conversation, into the co–creation of new knowledge and ideas.
Over the course of these collaborations, we noticed an important pattern emerging. Across gatherings spanning all five of our megatrends, participants repeatedly returned to one essential theme: literacy. Beyond traditional articulations of literacy as reading, writing, and numeracy, they were speaking of new, foundational literacies. Competencies that underpin the ability to learn for, adapt to, and fully participate in a world that has moved dramatically beyond what we traditionally prepare for. These new competencies weren’t advocated for only by educators. They were raised again and again, by technologists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. Across fields and contexts, forward thinkers recognized that new forms of literacy are central to progress in their respective fields.
In 2025, we decided to examine this pattern more closely. What are these new foundational literacies? How might they shape the future of learning, work, and even citizenship? The reflections that follow capture what we have learned and why they may well define the next chapter of human development.
The New Foundational Literacies
For centuries, education systems were built on three essential cornerstones: reading, writing, and arithmetic. These literacies promised meaningful participation in all aspects of life, from civic life to economic opportunity. They underlie SDG 4 and “quality education … for all.” But in the 21st century—an age defined by digital acceleration and information abundance—this is barely enough. To thrive today, learners need a new, additional set of foundational literacies that enable them to not only access information, but to navigate, interpret, and shape it responsibly.
The New Foundational Literacies include digital literacy, media literacy, data literacy, financial literacy, and civic literacy. Each represents a cluster of skills, rooted in critical thinking and the capacity to learn, unlearn, relearn, and be agile. They allow individuals to exercise agency instead of simply reacting to rapid–fire changes. They give learners the tools to understand each realm as it exists today, and to unlearn what becomes obsolete amid rapid change and relearn to adapt. Traditional literacies are an end point; a learner achieves literacy and numeracy and, while one might refine those skills they don’t fundamentally change. The New Foundational Literacies, however, are not a point of arrival. Knowledge will have to change because what the knowledge is about changes fundamentally and rapidly.
These literacies should sit alongside traditional literacies as the new baseline of education. Without them, learners risk being fluent in reading words but illiterate in reading the world around them; without embedding these capabilities across systems achieving SDG 4 is now impossible. In fact, achieving SDG 4 is now impossible without embedding these capabilities across systems. Learners must be able to decode and query the systems shaping their lives in order for us to truly deliver on the promise of quality education for all.
Embedding the New Literacies
Integrating the New Foundational Literacies into education systems requires we reimagine how learning is designed, delivered, and assessed. They are inherently interdisciplinary: media literacy involves ethics and civics as much as communication; digital literacy overlaps with creativity and problem–solving; and data literacy intersects with mathematics and social sciences. Embedding them means transforming classrooms into ecosystems of inquiry (much like the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals curriculum does) where students learn to question, analyze, and co–create knowledge rather than simply consume it.
This is too big to rest on educators alone. Governments can support the transformation by adopting forward–looking policies that treat these literacies as essential civic competencies. More mentally resilient, adaptive citizens are healthier, more productive, and better caretakers of their societies. Philanthropy can play a catalytic role as risk capital by funding scalable models such as open curricula, micro–credential frameworks, and cross–sector partnerships. The private sector, too, has a responsibility: to co–develop ethical technology tools and to support lifelong learning programs that prepare workers for continuous adaptation.
Finally, the shift in logic from young people as receivers of knowledge to young people learning how to learn, assess, and relearn has to also apply to the process by which we design this transformation. The learners who will be affected by the transformation should also co–architect the transformation. Their fluency with technology and instinct for collaboration position them as partners in redesigning education systems that reflect how they actually learn and live.
When institutions, educators, and learners co–create these literacies, they move us closer to an education system that prepares learners for the future and equips them to actively shape it.
Toward an Ecosystems Approach
The future of education will emerge from ecosystems that foster agency: networks in which learners, educators, institutions, and innovators collaborate.
This evolutionary shift from systems of delivery to ecosystems of connection is redefining the role of those who fund and shape education. Philanthropy, governments, and private–sector partners alike are being called to move beyond projects and programs toward infrastructure thinking, investing in interoperability, open standards, and public–good frameworks that enable innovation to scale equitably. When learning is treated as a common good rather than a competitive advantage, we unlock a new kind of progress, one that compounds over generations.
The next four years will determine whether we deliver on the 2030 Agenda, and they demand audacity. What we choose to fund, champion, and create now will define whether education becomes a promise fulfilled or a promise deferred.
a global affairs media network
From literacy to agency: education’s next transformation
Image via Adobe Stock.
September 8, 2026
Being able to read the words on a page no longer means you can read the world around you. That’s why we must move beyond reading, writing, and numeracy as the container for literacy and develop New Foundational Literacies, write Dr. Shane Szarkowski and Ana C. Rold.
A
t UNGA 80 last September, we gathered the world’s education leaders for the first of five annual Education Futures Forums leading to the 2030 horizon. There are now only four years to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and most urgently, on SDG 4: Quality Education for All.
As the leaders of a global diplomacy and policy organization, we are prioritizing SDG 4. While all the SDGs are critical targets, education is the foundation on which every goal stands. From health and equality to innovation, sustainability, and even peace, a future that arrives well relies on how education meets this moment.
Our education systems are straining under the pressures of a rapidly changing world. The shelf life of skills is shrinking, the nature of work is mutating, and even the purpose of education is evolving. The old questions of access and attainment—who gets to learn and how—are being replaced by deeper ones: who controls learning, who benefits from it, and how can it evolve as fast as the world around it?
The very world that education prepares us for is becoming more precarious and difficult to navigate. Our old measures of foundational knowledge, literacy and numeracy, are not enough to prepare young people for the future.
A New Basis for Education
For education to prepare our young people for the future, systems need an expansion of what literacies (or competencies) are deemed “foundational.” These are literacies for a new age, clustered around the capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn. They are vitally important to a successful education transformation.
Transforming education has been front and center on the global agenda since 2022 and, to an impressive extent, has been youth–led. Success stories scattered in pockets around the world offer both hope and regionally contextualized lessons. Thinkers and practitioners everywhere are producing insights into what works, how, and where. Yet real transformation of education systems remains elusive.
The good news is that we have a to–do list of what we need—and government commitments in place—to transform our education systems. What has been missing is the shape of education's future, a shared vision of how commitments are met and what successful transformation looks like in practice as compared to a set of commitments. How do we implement transformative policies and initiatives at a time when public education funding is dwindling rapidly? How do we identify all the stakeholders who should be part of this transformation and get them working in the same direction? Where is the confidence to move beyond gradual, safe, ineffective reform to the truly transformative? How do we tick off the items on our education transformation to–do list in meaningful ways? To paraphrase NCEE’s CEO Vicki Phillips at our Education Futures Forum during the 2025 UN General Assembly meetings: How do we stop tinkering and start transforming?
Young people are already leading this transformation; they are the protagonists co–creating what comes next alongside governments and multilateral institutions. The task before us is clear: to match their imagination with action and pragmatism, and to ensure that as the future rushes toward us, it arrives well for everyone.
Toward Collaborative Creation
For more than two years, we have, through our World in 2050 platform, explored how collective intelligence can transform convenings into engines for collaboration and creation. Our aim has been twofold: first, to forge new connections and a shared understanding among experts, innovators, and practitioners who might otherwise never meet. We call these ‘uncommon collaborations,’ and they are the core of our mission at World in 2050 to help the future arrive well. Second, through deliberate curation that values diversity of perspective, we have sought to evolve dialogue beyond conversation, into the co–creation of new knowledge and ideas.
Over the course of these collaborations, we noticed an important pattern emerging. Across gatherings spanning all five of our megatrends, participants repeatedly returned to one essential theme: literacy. Beyond traditional articulations of literacy as reading, writing, and numeracy, they were speaking of new, foundational literacies. Competencies that underpin the ability to learn for, adapt to, and fully participate in a world that has moved dramatically beyond what we traditionally prepare for. These new competencies weren’t advocated for only by educators. They were raised again and again, by technologists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. Across fields and contexts, forward thinkers recognized that new forms of literacy are central to progress in their respective fields.
In 2025, we decided to examine this pattern more closely. What are these new foundational literacies? How might they shape the future of learning, work, and even citizenship? The reflections that follow capture what we have learned and why they may well define the next chapter of human development.
The New Foundational Literacies
For centuries, education systems were built on three essential cornerstones: reading, writing, and arithmetic. These literacies promised meaningful participation in all aspects of life, from civic life to economic opportunity. They underlie SDG 4 and “quality education … for all.” But in the 21st century—an age defined by digital acceleration and information abundance—this is barely enough. To thrive today, learners need a new, additional set of foundational literacies that enable them to not only access information, but to navigate, interpret, and shape it responsibly.
The New Foundational Literacies include digital literacy, media literacy, data literacy, financial literacy, and civic literacy. Each represents a cluster of skills, rooted in critical thinking and the capacity to learn, unlearn, relearn, and be agile. They allow individuals to exercise agency instead of simply reacting to rapid–fire changes. They give learners the tools to understand each realm as it exists today, and to unlearn what becomes obsolete amid rapid change and relearn to adapt. Traditional literacies are an end point; a learner achieves literacy and numeracy and, while one might refine those skills they don’t fundamentally change. The New Foundational Literacies, however, are not a point of arrival. Knowledge will have to change because what the knowledge is about changes fundamentally and rapidly.
These literacies should sit alongside traditional literacies as the new baseline of education. Without them, learners risk being fluent in reading words but illiterate in reading the world around them; without embedding these capabilities across systems achieving SDG 4 is now impossible. In fact, achieving SDG 4 is now impossible without embedding these capabilities across systems. Learners must be able to decode and query the systems shaping their lives in order for us to truly deliver on the promise of quality education for all.
Embedding the New Literacies
Integrating the New Foundational Literacies into education systems requires we reimagine how learning is designed, delivered, and assessed. They are inherently interdisciplinary: media literacy involves ethics and civics as much as communication; digital literacy overlaps with creativity and problem–solving; and data literacy intersects with mathematics and social sciences. Embedding them means transforming classrooms into ecosystems of inquiry (much like the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals curriculum does) where students learn to question, analyze, and co–create knowledge rather than simply consume it.
This is too big to rest on educators alone. Governments can support the transformation by adopting forward–looking policies that treat these literacies as essential civic competencies. More mentally resilient, adaptive citizens are healthier, more productive, and better caretakers of their societies. Philanthropy can play a catalytic role as risk capital by funding scalable models such as open curricula, micro–credential frameworks, and cross–sector partnerships. The private sector, too, has a responsibility: to co–develop ethical technology tools and to support lifelong learning programs that prepare workers for continuous adaptation.
Finally, the shift in logic from young people as receivers of knowledge to young people learning how to learn, assess, and relearn has to also apply to the process by which we design this transformation. The learners who will be affected by the transformation should also co–architect the transformation. Their fluency with technology and instinct for collaboration position them as partners in redesigning education systems that reflect how they actually learn and live.
When institutions, educators, and learners co–create these literacies, they move us closer to an education system that prepares learners for the future and equips them to actively shape it.
Toward an Ecosystems Approach
The future of education will emerge from ecosystems that foster agency: networks in which learners, educators, institutions, and innovators collaborate.
This evolutionary shift from systems of delivery to ecosystems of connection is redefining the role of those who fund and shape education. Philanthropy, governments, and private–sector partners alike are being called to move beyond projects and programs toward infrastructure thinking, investing in interoperability, open standards, and public–good frameworks that enable innovation to scale equitably. When learning is treated as a common good rather than a competitive advantage, we unlock a new kind of progress, one that compounds over generations.
The next four years will determine whether we deliver on the 2030 Agenda, and they demand audacity. What we choose to fund, champion, and create now will define whether education becomes a promise fulfilled or a promise deferred.
