Second of three partsI LIKE the Naga College Foundation President Dr. Mario C. Villanueva's perspective about education, 'Our customers are not the students. As an institution of learning, our customer is Industry that needs our graduates.'Purpose and missionEnglish philosopher Herbert Spencer once said, 'The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.' Truly, education should focus more on practical skills rather than theoretical knowledge.Experts believe that the main aim of education should be to prepare students for future jobs and life after graduation, as well as to develop their critical thinking, creativity, innovation, social skills, and leadership qualities. They also believe that future education should be based on three core values: lifelong learning, global understanding/local context, and social/societal responsibility. The curricula must include both classroom-based learning as well as job-oriented education. To shift towards a more futuristic approach in education, teachers and facilitators of learning must become efficient researchers and problem solvers as well.There is, however, a simple dilemma, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 'How can we prepare students for jobs that have not yet been created, to tackle societal challenges that we can't yet imagine, and to use technologies that have not yet been invented? How can we equip them to thrive in an interconnected world, where they need to understand and appreciate different perspectives and world views, interact respectfully with others, and take responsible action towards sustainability and collective well-being?'Future curriculumThe future curriculum must consider modern curriculum redesign, innovations in curriculum implementation and evaluation, as well as lessons learned from other countries. We do not need to reinvent the wheel — simply benchmark with global standards and customize the design according to the Filipinos' unique needs, but we must strive to be as good as international standards. Customizing the curriculum will help develop KSAVs (knowledge, skills, attitude, and values) crucial for Filipino students to thrive in an uncertain future. Future curricula should be co-created by policymakers, researchers, school leaders, teachers, and student representatives and must consider student agency, well-being, and competencies.The curriculum of the future must develop skills in students 'to adapt to, thrive in, and even shape whatever the future holds. It must provide support in developing not only knowledge and skills but also attitudes and values that can guide them toward ethical and responsible actions. It must provide opportunities to develop their creative ingenuity to help 'propel humanity towards a bright future.'In my talk at NCF, I emphasized: 'The future curriculum must be powerful enough for students to learn how to navigate by themselves unfamiliar contexts in unfamiliar time and space, and still be able to find their direction in an uncertain and complex future. This should be entirely different from the curriculum of the past, where students simply received fixed instructions for all and directions from their teachers. The curriculum of the future must be focused on future-proofing the students.'Future learning spacesIn the future, experts believe that learning will take place in learning spaces, not necessarily 'classrooms.' Schools must create an environment where students feel accepted, safe, valued, and motivated to learn. The learning space must encourage peer-to-peer learning, facilitated and monitored by teachers who provide guide questions that allow students to think critically, collaborate, reason, and create solutions to real-life problems and issues.Learning facilitators, or teachers as we call them now, must leverage augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to create virtual field trips, immersive simulations, and interactive 3D models.The classroom of the future will be more flexible and sensitive to the student's needs and should easily adjust to the requirements of class activities. Schools must redesign classrooms to make students more comfortable and motivated to learn.The configuration of future classrooms will be influenced by current and emerging learning technologies. Students and teachers will use Cloud spaces to store work and post grades and assignments. They will use online portals to complete tests online and collaborative tools to work on team projects. Learning, monitoring, and assessment will happen more virtually. AR, VR, tablets and eBooks instead of physical textbooks and notebooks will become permanent fixtures.At NCF, I could not overemphasize that '[t]he classrooms or learning spaces of the future must open opportunities for more flexible teaching and learning. They must adapt to the needs of students and allow more use of technology that younger generations of students are familiar with. The education system must refocus its role from correcting individual students' weaknesses to developing specific strengths, interests, and goals, in the classroom or in other learning spaces.'Teachers of the futureTeachers must adapt to new flexible learning methods — multiple learning styles, flexible learning opportunities, and adaptive learning technology. Individualized teaching style will render a one-size-fits-all method of teaching a thing of the past. Teachers will encourage their students to follow individual educational paths by building relations with other educational institutions, providing flexible schedules, and tailoring specific learning environments for their students.Experts think that 'teachers must develop future-oriented competencies and must themselves be life-long learners. Schools must provide supportive systems that foster teacher agency, well-being, and competencies. Teachers must adopt new roles other than as pedagogues and lecturers — facilitators, learning consultants, and counselors.' Teachers must undergo skills upgrading, particularly on the use of new learning technologies (AR, VR, games, etc.) and new teaching styles, and must acquire greater ease and ability to teach students of different ethnicities, cultures, intelligence, and motivation. Teachers of the future can have the respectability and status afforded to doctors or lawyers, if they acquire the same level of credibility in their profession.Teachers must adapt to the changing global learning environment. Knowing the importance of the roles that the teachers will play in the future, schools will likely focus more on the upgrading of teachers' competencies, stature, and compensation. But the teaching challenge will increase tremendously as the Generations Alpha and Beta will be a different demographic cohort from the Millennials and the Gen Zs. From childhood, Gen A and Gen B students shall have lived on the planet of the Apps and will learn better from App-related school content and from teachers who are technology-trained, -savvy, and -aided.Here's a challenge to the Academe and the Philippine education regulators. You have the power to change education in the country. Where will you start? You must surmount huge obstacles (including self-imposed ones) before you can make a small improvement in the country's overall education system. But, if administrators, teachers, and students start to innovate now with what they can do together — one school, one year or semester, and one class at a time, they might eventually become that proverbial torch that could light the way for better education in the Philippines.Ernie Cecilia is the chairman of the Human Capital Committee and the Publications Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham); chairman of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines' (ECOP's) TWG on Labor and Social Policy Issues; and past president of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP). He can be reached at erniececilia@gmail.com.
