Education in the City 5.0

“If you will it, it is no dream.” – Theodor Herzl

I have been reflecting on how education should look in a City 5.0—a meticulously planned space designed explicitly to accelerate poverty eradication. This article compiles a series of preliminary reflections which, with your input, will mature into policies capable of setting City 5.0 apart from the current status quo.

Schools today directly mirror the era of the Industrial Revolution, when parents had to leave home to work in factories and needed a place for their children. Consequently, schools themselves became industrialized, structured in segmented grades, standardized content, and a system that treats students as homogeneous units subjected to a linear formation process.

Over time, criticism of this model has intensified because humans naturally possess diverse characteristics, abilities, and types of intelligence; thus, a customized approach would yield superior results. While I recognize the schools’ ongoing efforts, we remain overly attached to a test-centric educational model. I wonder, why?

In adulthood, we certainly encounter goals within organizations, yet these goals are not assessed by knowledge-based tests held at specific dates and times. Instead, performance is evaluated based on cumulative activities over longer periods—such as months, quarters, years, or even decades. Indeed, what truly matters is our ongoing capacity for execution, the accumulation of which produces concrete results such as capital, market share, new products, or even stable family relationships. Achieving such goals requires creativity in problem-solving, interpersonal skills, adaptability, and self-directed learning.

Therefore, why do schools insist upon examination-based systems? Why not emphasize what truly matters? Partnerships between NGOs, government agencies, and corporations could enable children to gain practical experience within diverse institutions as an integral part of their school curriculum. This approach would immerse children early on in real-life challenges and adult problems. Some schools already adopt this approach timidly. My experience with such a model has been outstanding.

Perhaps the explanation lies in universities. As long as these institutions continue to select students based on theoretical tests taken on a single day, parents will prioritize placing their children in schools focused on examination preparation. The logic is straightforward: good grades lead to prestigious colleges, high-quality diplomas, exposure to influential peer groups, and ultimately, better employment opportunities.

City 5.0 presents a unique opportunity to experiment with alternative educational models. The context of a small, highly safe city with defined boundaries facilitates early childhood involvement in society’s mechanisms—such as public security, hospitals, education, legislature, conflict resolution, executive functions, sports, recreation, environment, and infrastructure, among others.

One of the greatest educational challenges in impoverished communities is the home environment. Upon returning home, many children face exposure to drug trafficking, violence, nutritional issues, and a lack of basic  infrastructure like sanitation, potable water, electricity, and stable telecommunications. Additionally, they often have absent parents who must work long hours. In such contexts, boarding school models could be considered, provided they offer superior conditions compared to those at home. Yet, decisions like these must be thoroughly evaluated and carefully implemented.

It is crucial to remember that City 5.0 is an Zone for Accelerated Poverty Eradication (ZAPE), itself part of the Autonomous Experimental Governamental Zone (AGE-Zone), adopting the PRIME model. PRIME stands for: Purpose—eradication of poverty; Results—meritocracy as a fundamental principle, meaning teachers who fail to deliver performance cannot remain part of the educational system; Interoperability—internal and external access to standardized statistical data to help identify successful and unsuccessful policies within society 5.0; Measurement—clear definition of KPIs, where average grades might be important but no less significant than integrity, dedication, creativity, teamwork, leadership, solution articulation, efficient execution, and citizenship; Empirical Evidence—decision-making based strictly on data or practical scientific testing of new educational methods, avoiding ideological interference or union interests.

Additionally, I propose that governments, businesses, and NGOs join forces with the PRIME Society to create an entirely new university model—a truly innovative disruption of the current academic system. In this way, young people could be prepared for future demands, ideally graduating already employed—a transformation that could otherwise take traditional universities a century or more to achieve. As futurist Buckminster Fuller once said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Would you like to contribute to this discussion? Send your suggestions or feedback directly to the author via LinkedIn or X.

On May 28th, Prime Society will host an event in São Paulo titled “City 5.0 – When Poverty Eradication Becomes Good Business,” initiating this transformation and seeking concrete solutions for a problem that has haunted Brazil for centuries.