In the 19th Century, it took Britain 150 years to double its GDP per capita. In the 20th
Century, it took the US 50 years. In the 21st, it will take China and India just 15.
It took 50 years for 1 in 4 Americans to adopt electricity, 30 years for the same number
to adopt radio, 18 years for colour TV, 13 for mobile phones and only 7 for the World
Wide Web. The next 20 years will see the world's population
reach 8 billion and, for the first time in human history, most will not live in poverty.
Instead the world's middle class will increase from one to three billion. They'll become
the most important economic and social sector in most countries and drive a significantly
higher demand for consumer goods and services while families will spend more their household
income on education. China will become the world's largest economy,
while the 'Next Eleven' will outstrip the 27 countries in the EU.
Asia's GDP, population and technical investment will be greater than that of North America
and Europe combined. 60% of the world's population will live in big cities; that's 1.5 billion more than now.
And there'll be one billion workers from developing economies entering the world's
labour market.
Clearly there is much to do. Today, 775 million adults are illiterate, 61 million children
are not even in primary school and 75 million young people are out of work.
So, we're starting to plot our path for the next 20 years...
...For how we will meet the big global needs in education. How we can provide better access
to learning, and make it more affordable.
How to provide learning that is more effective. Learning that is both completely personal
and highly scalable.