A glimpse into education and '2030 issues' from the UK

There is a featured opinion piece from my Varkey Foundation brother, Vikas Pota (who is the CEO of the foundation), about three major converging issues in the United Kingdom: Brexit, the 'age of the machines' and automation, and a growing shortage of teachers at all levels.

This is timely, of course, because of our discussions in class about these issues over the next 10-15 years, that will continue to change, rapidly, the world's economies and ways of life.

As many brought up in our discussions, education is the foundation of dealing with present and future changes as technologies evolve. Without an educated public on these issues, my personal fear is that we will never elect any officials at any level of government who will be willing to bring these up and have as major planks in their platforms - politicians focus on issues the public is interested in if they want to be elected. So it starts, and ends, with a well educated electorate.

There is also a growing shortage of teachers in some parts of the U.S. This, combined with a large segment of the population who buy into 'fake news' and an anti-science/anti-intellectual/anti-expert perspective, will make progress difficult in the U.S. over the next couple election cycles.