Educational Challenges in 21st Century and Sustainable Development

The converging impact of globalization, ICT and knowledge explosion has led to phenomenal changes in the modern society, which have challenged every aspect of our modern lifestyle. To cope with these run-away changes we need to prepare workforce with the skills to handle a range of electronic technologies that characterize this digital era. To prepare citizens with cosmopolitan outlook, cross-cultural understanding, capable of working in multicultural settings on group projects and capacity to think creatively and critically a different approach to the delivery of education is required. This paper argues that nothing less than a radical change, especially in the developing countries, is required in the ways education is delivered to the ‘digital natives’ of today and tomorrow. Arguing that education is the engine room and strength of a nation is based on its quality education, it is crucial for a country to deliver calibrated education to prepare globally competitive citizens. The paper examines various educational reforms undertaken in some successful education systems, but it also serves a caveat that the developing countries like Indonesia or a region like ASEAN should learn from the experience of such systems. At the same time time they should be aware of that an idea which works in one socio-economic setting may not be that effective in another setting as socio-political systems play their own part.