Education in a Post-neoliberal Era: a promising future for the Global South?

This article analyses the consequences of neoliberal thinking for education systems, particularly in the Global South. It considers the possibility of an intellectual meltdown following the economic meltdown and argues that a new post-neoliberal educational agenda is needed. The marketisation of education in the Global North and the doublespeak of the Education for All agenda in the Global South are used to illustrate the onslaught against educational ideals. However, the present situation can open up for a new start in education based on ideas fostering social justice and education as a craftsmanship for life, a usefulness beyond the classroom, a critical contextualised praxis and a narrative of a new and more human type of social development. It is argued that a post-neoliberal agenda along these ideas is urgently needed globally and that it has the potential to become particularly important for the creation of opportunities and initiatives in the Global South.