Catastrophes of education or the endless debacle: Innovation as a fight against the elements

Abstract

In both developed and emerging education systems education tends to be socially and politically perceived as a failed and backward sector that requires a radical overhaul and cutting-edge innovation. This paper sets out to identify the true catastrophes of education -the persistent crisis of learning, the democratic recession and its impact on universal education, and the rampant growth of shadow education- which precede the 2020 pandemic and its equally catastrophic consequences on the sector. These socalled catastrophes allow an analysis of the paradoxical challenges that education development is facing nowadays. The paper then ends with a selection of available evidence on the impact and cost-effectiveness of innovative interventions that could lead to a much-needed global agenda for education innovation, particularly for developing countries. The evidence available is increasingly compelling and sophisticated. Development agencies, bilateral and multilateral, foundations, NGOs, and many other actors who spend billions of dollars in the education systems of these countries, urgently require such evidence so that those resources are not squandered.