UNESCO’s vision statement for a “new social contract for education,” as articulated in its 2021–2023 reports. The document argues that education should no longer be narrowly about academic or vocational training, but re-imagined to serve society’s urgent needs in the 21st century: equity, human rights, global citizenship, sustainability, and community well-being.

Key social objectives it sets include:

• Guaranteeing quality education for everyone throughout life  seeing education as a human right. 
• Treating education as a public common good, not simply a private commodity resisting commercialization or profit-driven models.
• Promoting inclusion, diversity, and respect for multiple ways of knowing acknowledging varied cultural, social, and epistemological backgrounds. 
• Equipping learners not just with academic or technical skills, but also with social, emotional, civic, ethical, and sustainability competencies  preparing them to contribute positively to communities and address global challenges.

https://www.unesco.org/en/futures-education/vision

While I find the vision inspiring, as a teacher I  notice how abstract it can feel in real teaching contexts. Terms like “inclusion,” “diverse ways of knowing,” “citizen competencies,” or “sustainability education” sound powerful, but as a teacher, I often wonder what they actually look like in day-to-day classroom practice. Different countries and even different schools they interpret these ideas in their own ways, which sometimes leaves me uncertain about how to apply them consistently. Without clearer frameworks or examples this kind of policy risks becoming more rhetorical than practical, especially for teachers like me who want to translate big goals into real learning experiences for my students.