International Day of Education 2024
The International Day of Education is taking place this year on the 24th January with this year's theme being “Education for lasting peace”.
This special day was first established by the United Nations in 2018, with the aim to recognize the role of education in promoting peace and development, as well ensuring everyone has the right to an education, no matter who they are and which country they live in.
In today’s world, a surge of violent conflicts and civil wars, paralleled by a concerning rise of intolerance and discrimination undermine the progress made in ensuring peace for all.
Children and education systems are often on the front line of these violent conflicts.
Today, 244 million children have had their education disrupted due to conflict, climate change disasters and forced displacement and are in desperate need of educational support.
Among those, about 72 million children in crisis-affected countries are out of school, and more than half of them – 127 million – are not achieving the minimum proficiencies in reading and mathematics, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goal 4 of ensuring quality and inclusive education for every child.
Globally, 258 million school age children around the world are out of school. Even when children are in school, they are not learning. As a result, 617 million children globally cannot read and do basic math.
This education crisis is exacerbated by poor domestic investment in education and declining levels of international aid to education. Today 1 in 3 countries are not meeting the international benchmarks of spending at least 5% of GDP on education and at least 15% of national budgets on education. Official Development Assistance (ODA) declined by 7%, from US$19.3 billion in 2020 to US$17.8 billion in 2021.
Education is key to promoting peace
Welcoming the link that this year’s theme makes between education and peace, INEd’s Global Co-Chair Mehnaz Akber Aziz of Pakistan said, “Education imparts knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that are important for the social, economic and political development of any country.
“When education is equitably available, of good quality, relevant and conflict sensitive, it can help promote peace and social cohesion.
“An active commitment to peace is more urgent today than ever and education is central to this endeavor,” she concluded.
Parliamentarians hold the power to protect every child’s right to education
Members of parliament play a key role in protecting the right to education of every child. The key priority areas which MPs can encourage their governments to act on are:
Better and more financing for education
Ensuring all children know how to read, write and do mathematics
Ensuring all children have a healthy meal at school
Protect the education of children in emergencies
“The International Day of Education provides an opportunity for members of parliament to encourage their governments to advance all of these priorities and in doing so to accelerate the achievement of SDG 4.” said IPNEd’s regional representative for Europe and Swedish MP Gudrun Brunegård.
“On this important day I urge my parliamentary peers to use their power as advocates, representatives, legislators, budget makers and scrutiny providers to grow educational opportunities and deliver the promise of a quality education for all,” said Ms Akber Aziz.
IPNEd has published and shared a briefing for Members of Parliament with suggestions about how parliament can make the International Day of Education.
The briefing can be downloaded here.
