UNESCO has published guidance urging countries to put culture and the arts at the heart of education, prompting one school glue stick to claim it has been waiting years for a curriculum role, a staff lanyard and a cupboard with better ventilation.
The guidance, published on 29 September 2025, supports the integration of culture and the arts across formal, non formal and informal learning. It also encourages inclusive, context relevant policies, curricula and learning environments. A papier mâché volcano has responded by pointing out that it already delivers all three forms of education, particularly when pupils are told not to touch it.
At the Institute of Legitimate Glitter, learning envoy Beatrice Collage welcomed the document. In an entirely invented contribution to this report, she said schools could finally recognise that drawing a dragon involves planning, visual communication and at least one parent being asked to remove paint from a ceiling.
The guidance builds on the UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education, adopted by culture and education ministers in 2024. This has encouraged a recorder to request formal recognition for its contribution to holistic learning, although the instrument has agreed to provide evidence from outside the main building and preferably from another postcode.
UNESCO says the guidance is intended to help Member States harness cultural strengths, respond to emerging challenges and develop more inclusive education. The school hall has already declared itself a cultural strength, an emerging challenge and the only available venue for contemporary dance, three assemblies and a rain soaked jumble sale.
Director of Artistic Evidence Percy Easel said the new approach would ensure creativity was no longer treated as an optional extra. In a fictional remark supplied for satirical purposes, he said integration meant glitter would now be everywhere rather than merely in the marked area where nobody had successfully contained it.
The guidance covers lifelong learning and links culture and the arts with creativity, critical thinking and respect for cultural diversity. The glue stick has therefore submitted a professional development plan, requested a teaching credential and asked whether promotion to senior practitioner includes a cap that stays on.
Its five year strategy for cross curricular bonding begins with the emergency repair of the volcano and ends with every pupil permanently attached to a chair. UNESCO has put the arts at the heart of education. The glue stick has put the entire classroom in a vice.
Real story: UNESCO.
