This essay describes five basic trends that influence and in turn build the future of education, understood as a social process to make us more and more human, in a context of accelerated globalization. The analysis has a global scope but with special reference for Latin America and Panama. It starts from a typical premise of contemporary foresight: the future is built and can be designed, but this involves intervening on key aspects, once the image of the target society has been defined. To a large extent, this image has been constructed by two important references: the Plan of the National Agreement for Development and the Agenda 2030 linked to the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDO). The demographic trend shows that we are still open to a window of opportunity given by the demographic bonus. Second, the driving force of technological innovation provides the basis for reducing costs in terms of expanding educational coverage. Likewise, the new curriculum involves enormous challenges to innovate within the classrooms, which will require flexibility that ICTs also facilitate. Finally, the pace of economic growth and employment trends seem to be the least favorable variables at this juncture, given the volatile nature of the international market and the nature of the prevailing development model that has tended to aggravate social inequalities. However, there are margins for moderate optimism.
