In 1948, the United Nations proclaimed education to be a fundamental human right. According to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that right includes free and compulsory elementary education, and access to technical, professional, and higher education.
In the 60 years since, great strides have been made. Today, more children attend school than at any other point in human history. Around the world, literacy rates continue to climb.
In emerging nations such as China and India, where a college education was a rarity just a generation ago, tens of thousands of students graduate each year from universities that are on par with the best in the world.
But while we have made progress, we are far from reaching the goal of universal education. According to UNESCO and the World Bank, nearly 400 million elementary- and secondary-age children are not attending school. Hundreds of millions more who do attend--including many in the U.S.--don't receive an education that prepares them adequately for life beyond school.
Solving these problems has never been more important than it is in today's knowledge-driven world. For individuals, education is the prerequisite for opportunity and success. For communities and nations, educated citizens provide the foundation for sustainable social and economic progress.
My concern for education comes from a number of perspectives. I look at education through the eyes of a business leader, and I see the critical importance of a skilled and highly trained workforce. In my philanthropic work, I look at education and see it as a powerful way to promote economic and social equity. As a parent, I see how important quality education is in inspiring children to have a passion for learning and to have the foundation they need to lead fulfilling and productive lives.
Transforming education so that it meets the needs of all children is a complex and difficult task that spans issues ranging from the global shortage of trained, qualified teachers--UNESCO estimates that we need 18 million new teachers to meet current demand--to the problems of overcrowded schools, aging infrastructure, obsolete equipment and textbooks, and outdated teaching methods and curricula.
At the heart of almost all of these issues is the problem of scale: of finding ways to make high-quality educational resources--whether it's brilliant teachers, innovative lesson plans or inspiring new teaching methods--reach not just a handful of students in a single classroom but hundreds of millions of students around the globe. It is imperative that we act quickly to solve the problem of scale before another generation of young people misses out on the opportunities that a quality education provides.
Fortunately, technology can provide many of the tools needed to begin to tackle the challenge of scale. The combination of software, broadband networks and powerful, affordable devices is making it possible to put high-quality educational resources into the hands of any teacher or student who has access to basic technology infrastructure and tools.
The unique ability of technology to enable today's limited educational resources to scale quickly and affordably across great distances to a great many people makes it an essential ingredient in our efforts to transform education.
MIT's OpenCourseware Initiative is an exciting example of how technology can help make great educational materials scale. Through the OpenCourseware Web site, lecture notes, exams and other resources for more than 1,800 MIT classes are available online for free. Developed by professors at one of the world's great universities, these materials used to be available to only a small handful of students. Now, anyone, anywhere in the world, can access them, and on average more than 1 million people visit the site every month.
Online communities that enable teachers to share ideas, lesson plans and content are another example of how technology can bring greater scale to education.
Through Unlimited Potential, Microsoft's program to remove the barriers that prevent underserved communities from utilizing the benefits of information technology, we have worked with governments, nonprofits and other companies to establish online portals called Innovative Teachers Networks. Today, more than half a million teachers in nearly 50 countries use Innovative Teachers Networks to share thousands of lesson plans and innovative digital-classroom resources.
Web portals can also connect teachers to students and parents. At Shirelands Language College, an inner-city school in Birmingham, England, a portal called the Shirelands Learning Gateway makes it easier for parents to follow their children's progress, and it helps teachers and students keep track of schoolwork and take advantage of individualized instruction.
The impact of the Shirelands Learning Gateway on academic performance has been so positive that school officials are quickly expanding it to reach several hundred additional schools. Because it is software-based and delivered over the Internet, scaling it to reach tens of thousands of additional students, teachers and parents is a relatively simple matter.
There are many other ways that technology can help educational resources scale. Web-based instruction for teachers is one of the most important because it can be an extremely cost-effective way to train new teachers, and it may be the only way we can possibly fill the huge demand for qualified teachers.
Of course, technology by itself is not the answer to all the issues we face in our efforts to live up to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There are significant social, cultural and institutional challenges that must be overcome as well.
Technology must be implemented as part of a thoughtful, holistic approach to education transformation that includes teacher training, relevant curricula, parental involvement and programs for children that fill unmet needs for basics like nutrition and health care.
Working together, governments, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations must commit to addressing these issues. Only then can we harness the universal desire of teachers and parents to ensure that all children can access the high-quality educational experiences they need to lead productive lives filled with unlimited opportunities for success, discovery and learning.
