OECD Report: Recasting Education's Purpose for the AI Age and Ecological Sustainability
SDG 4: Quality Education | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Institutions: Ministry of Education | NITI Aayog
The OECD report, Education for Human Flourishing, asserts that the purpose of education must be fundamentally recast to prepare young people for a world defined by the accelerating growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and severe ecological limits. The traditional educational track, narrowly focused on preparing students as “homo economicus” (economic actors), is no longer sufficient to navigate the volatility and complexity of the 21st century. The new vision aims to nurture a suite of distinctive human intelligences that machines currently lack, equipping individuals not only to flourish personally but also to contribute to flourishing societies “in balance with the planet”.
The report introduces “Moral Space” as a strategic concept to define the ethical boundaries within which economic and societal activities must operate: bounded by a social foundation (beneath which no one should fall) and an ecological ceiling (above which the earth will be further degraded). .
The proposed framework rebalances education - within moral space - by emphasizing:
Distinctive Human Intelligences: Prioritizing skills that exceed machines, particularly Social Intelligence (the capacity to know and understand others) and Meta-Intelligence (the capacity to understand oneself as a learner and in relation to the environment).
New Core Competencies: Developing competencies essential for future life, including Adaptive Problem-Solving (creative thinking for new enterprises and business models), Ethical Decision-Making (handling dilemmas and trade-offs in an imbalanced world), and Aesthetic Perception.
The overall framework aims to nurture these distinctive human intelligences that complement, rather than compete with, machines; as AI is already starting to “outpace humans” in conventional cognitive areas like reading, mathematics, and scientific reasoning.
Follow the full report here: Education for Human Flourishing