students in East Asia are better at distinguishing a fact from an opinion than other high performing countries. This is from the reading test in PISA 2018 that includes an assessment of the ability to tell whether a source is credible (Schleicher 2019). In PISA terms, the ability to differentiate between fact and opinion is considered to be at level 5 or above on PISA’s six levels of reading proficiency. On average across all countries, 7 percent of 15-year-olds achieve a level five, and just 1.3 percent get up to level six. For Singapore, the percentage of top performers is triple that of the OECD average; that is, 26 percent of students achieved a level five or above, with 7.3 percent reaching level six (Civinini 2019). In other words, better education is democratizing, to the extent that it promotes truth, values and civic engagement. At the same time, globalization and automation mean it is now more important than ever that schools focus on developing students’ creativity (Beard 2018).

Literacy and numeracy are important, fundamental building blocks. But computers are going to be far better than humans at processing these forms of explicit knowledge. This means that it is important to also build the skills that AI cannot emulate. Such non-cognitive, socioemotional skills are also the types of skills that will serve young people well as they deal with disinformation and build trust in society. Empathy, agreeableness and openness will serve them very well. Since machines will be better at routine, codifiable tasks according to a set of rules; then people need to become better at open-ended tasks that require flexibility, creativity and judgement. These include skills to promote social interaction.

# _Education 4.0?_

We have all heard of Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, popularized by the World Economic Forum. Industry 1.0 refers to the first industrial revolution. Industry 2.0 is the second industrial revolution (1870 – 1914). The third industrial revolution occurred in the late 20th century, also known as the digital revolution. Industry 4.0 is the next stage, comprising the link between cyber and human systems.

It is useful to contrast that to what is happening in education. If Education 1.0 is the traditional schoolhouse, with a teacher and students, then we might think of 2.0 as the education system with collaboration, more use of technology, and the teacher as facilitator. Education 3.0 might be the world of connected learning, personalized instruction, and open access. Then Education 4.0 is a system of lifelong learning driven by autonomy and purpose; that is, just in time learning, ubiquitous, and available to all (Vander Ark 2017).

While there is already evidence that lifelong learning raises productivity and earnings (Desjardins 2016; Dorsett, Lui and Weale 2010), it will become more critical to our lives, community, and society in the future, post-truth society. It contributes towards making people well-rounded and to be able to leverage knowledge (Drucker 1992).

Therefore, economic necessity and the need to disentangle truth from non-truth has become a necessity, making lifelong learning imperative (World Bank 2003). In today’s labor market, people need to learn how to learn; to re-learn; unlearn; and learn again (Patrinos 2020). There are also significant health benefits. Research suggests the importance of implementing lifelong learning and early cognitive training to prevent a mental decline in older adults, and early interventions in 8