Education should help societies perpetuate and renew themselves. In view of their rapid evolution and growing complexity, in view of the ever more rapid changes in and the fragmentation of knowledge and its applications, education must preserve the humanistic dimension of real development and the values of tolerance, solidarity, respect and openness to others; stress should be laid on the intercultural context of education in all its forms. The act of educating, however, cannot be reduced to setting out precepts applicable in the societies of the past. It is with an eye to tomorrow's world and its different cultures that the subject-matter and methods of an internationally oriented humanistic education should be revised.
UNESCO's programme includes the following elements: improvement of the content and process of basic educational programmes; improvement of the quality of primary school teachers, literacy workers and other basic education personnel; improvement of the knowledge base concerning the various factors affecting learning in basic education.
It is in the area of science and technology and in higher education that education must be firmly turned to face the future. It is not merely a matter of giving more importance to scientific and technical education but rather of ensuring that subject-matter and curricula keep pace with progress in those fields.