ABSTRACT
The Universal Basic and Secondary Education (UBASE) project has posed the question: What would constitute a quality education? To answer this question, we describe our understanding of the purpose of universal education and then propose a specifi c approach to defi ning a quality education applicable for all. At the heart of the approach is a framework, developed through a broad consensus-building process, to help guide the selection of key competencies which can describe the contents of an education that is applicable and high-quality for countries with different institutions and curricula. Based on this framework, we put forth three specifi c areas of key competencies as a common basis for developing quality universal basic and secondary education: acting autonomously, using tools interactively, and interacting in socially heterogeneous groups. Last, we review the contributions of other UBASE scholars to demonstrate how these three areas of key competencies not only accord with their viewpoints but help unify seemingly different ways of defi ning a quality education.
