Editorial: B.C.’s tough tutorial in education survival

The 2020 pandemic’s first wave has provided a deep teaching moment for a wide range of business sectors – none more so than education.

As a recently released RBC Economics discussion paper on the future of education concluded, the global coronavirus outbreak “may precipitate the largest pivot in the delivery of education we’ve ever seen.”

Consider, for example, that, according to UNESCO, 143 countrywide school closures have affected close to 1.2 billion or 70 per cent of the world’s enrolled students.

Closer to home, more than seven million students in Canada have been forced to shift the way they access the country’s education system.

But in the education business, disruption goes far beyond school customers.

Education providers, especially post-secondary institutions, have been hard hit by the fallout from the pandemic and the subsequent travel restrictions, border closures and other efforts to slow its spread.

The outlook for the multibillion-dollar cash flow from Canada’s international student business in the pandemic era is not good.

The question, then, is how will Canada’s education business respond and how will that response guarantee the survival of higher education and ensure that it develops the talent required to drive the country’s economy and build a productive workforce?

Providing more flexible learning venues and enrolment times is critical, as is greater incorporation of virtual reality and other technology in education.

RBC also argues that colleges, polytechnics and universities need to collaborate to survive.

But the pandemic teaching moment’s biggest challenge and opportunity for schools and a labour market facing massive disruption is retooling an education and training system to produce highly-skilled, socially responsible, open-minded independent thinkers and doers who can pursue rewarding careers while building a dynamic economy and a better world.