What will Australia be like in 2060? A report by the CSIRO.

 
This year, the CSIRO  published a report to address the question: 
‘What will Australia be like economically, socially and environmentally in 2060?’ 
 
 
The report outlines 6 key challenges that Australia will face over the next 40 years: 
  • Rise of Asia: by 2030, the Asia-Pacific region will be home to 65% of the world’s middle class. 
  • Technological change: the rise of artificial intelligence, automation, and biotechnology will impact heavily on the nature of work. **This has huge implications for education**
  • Climate change and environment: unprecedented global warming will take place, resulting in social, economic and environmental stress. Soil health will continue to decline. 
  • Demographics: both the growing population, and the ageing population, will put pressure on existing services. 
  • Trust: people don’t really trust government anymore. They also don’t trust the media, or big business. This makes it hard to find agreement on long-term solutions. 
  • Social cohesion: lack of trust, financial stress, slow wage growth, poor housing affordability - all of this can lead to more division in society. 
 
According to the report, Australia’s future will look one of two ways, depending on our responses. 
  1. ‘A Slow Decline’ - if we do not take proactive measures and fail to address these challenges head on, we will see a decline in all future outcomes. Our economy will become vulnerable, wage growth will be slow, there will be more urban sprawl, and housing will become even more unaffordable. Productivity will be low.
  2. ‘Outlook Vision’ - in this option, Australia takes decisive action, leading to more positive outcomes. Higher GDP, wage growth, higher-density populations, more housing affordability, better access to jobs, education, etc. 
 
In order to achieve the Outlook Vision, there needs to be 5 key shifts: 
  • Industry: increased adoption of technology, investment in skills (cognitive and creative) and a competitive export industry. 
  • Urban: high density city planning, reduced congestion, mixed land use zones, better transportation solutions.
  • Energy: more renewable energy, improved productivity, development of new solutions such as hydrogen and high-voltage direct current power. 
  • Land: use more technology and use natural assets more efficiently. Participate in new markets, such as carbon forestry. Improve biodiversity and ecosystem health. 
  • Culture: rebuild trust in our institutions, encourage healthy risk taking, curiosity, acceptance of fear of failure, to support entrepreneurship and innovation, include social and environmental outcomes in decision-making processes.  
 
So what does this mean for the education sector? What should we, as teachers be implementing and advocating? 
  • We need to emphasise develop cognitive, collaborative, and creative skills, which are harder to displace by technology.
  • There has been a steady decline in maths and science, and bottom-performing students falling faster than those at the top, exacerbating inequality. We need to advocate for more equality across the education industry in Australia. 
  • The report references High Tech High - a school in the US where students are working on technology projects alongside peers and local businesses. This needs become more commonplace across the education sector. 
  • Life-long learning/ a growth mindset -  there is a need to build resilience and adaptability to cope with multiple job/ career changes. 
  • Education is our 3rd largest export. New technologies must be embraced to continue this growth (eg. Machine learning, big data, augmented reality and digital/ online learning platforms). 
  •     Encourage healthy risk-taking: 
    • Australia is ranked 22nd overall in the Global Entrepreneurial Index, with 41.4% of respondents feeling held back by a fear of failure. 
  • Place higher importance on developing students emotional intelligence, as this is a skill that will remain of high value, and one that AI will not be able to replicate. 
  • We need to be incorporating integrated project based learning into our teaching and learning programs, in which students have the opportunity to design solutions to real-world problems and create connections to the broader community. 
  • We need to be teaching entrepreneurial skills. 
  • Students need to develop the skill of self-regulation, which will help to develop resilience, perseverance, adaptability, and life-long learning. 
This is what a Future Focused Teaching & Learning approach is all about. If we want to achieve the Outlook Vision for Australia (and the world), so that we can successfully navigate the challenges of the future, we NEED to be preparing our students effectively. We can't rely on the practices of the past to prepare for the future. 
 
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