IPNEd attends the Annual Gladwyn Lecture
On January 25 the Annual Gladwyn Lecture was in the UK Parliament. Organized by the Council for Education in the Commonwealth in honor of its former Patron, Lord Gladwyn, a distinguished UK diplomat and parliamentarian.The Lecture focuses on an educational topic of relevance to the Commonwealth and is delivered by an eminent expert.
This year’s lecture was delivered by Alicia Herbert OBE by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Director for Education, Gender and Equality and Special Envoy for Gender Equality.
Mr Herbert reflections focused on how the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth can respond to the global education crisis.
She shared that education is in a deep crisis: a crisis of equity, quality, and relevance. Hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable children, young people, and adults remain excluded from education.
Across the Commonwealth and around the world, conflict, climate change, food crises, forced displacement and the aftermath of COVID-19 continue to strain education systems and deny millions of children the opportunity to learn and thrive.
After decades of progress, the number of out-of-school children around the world has risen. Today, 250 million children and youth are out of school.
Two thirds of the world’s children are not achieving minimum proficiency in reading or mathematics, despite attending schools.
Whilst the learning crisis is a global one, it has deep roots in the Commonwealth. More than 40 million of the world’s out of school children live in two Commonwealth member states, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Of the 763 million young people and adults who lack basic literacy skills, more than half live in the Commonwealth, and the majority are women.
The lecture was attended by a series of important partners, including the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), Education Cannot Wait, Save the Children, the Education Outcomes Fund and University College London (UCL).
In her speech, Alicia Herbert emphasized how the school closure during COVID-19, climate change disasters and conflicts, along with the increasing violence against women and girls in many countries around the world, pose huge threats to every child’s right to a quality, inclusive education.
Ms Herbert called for a greater recognition of the challenges posed to educational progress, a recommitment to multilateralism and recognized that a stronger focus on parliamentary engagement is urgently needed to build greater political understanding of and commitment to education.
“The good news is that we know what works to transform education systems and improve children’s learning outcomes. We need to grow domestic financing and improve the effectiveness of what we spend on education, inform parents and communities about the impacts of education, teach children at the right level, and provide teachers with instructed learning materials.”
“None of these is possible without political commitment. IPNEd is committed to continue working with members of parliament to grow political will around tackling the critical challenges that are facing education today and ensuring no one is left behind,” said Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, IPNEd’s Executive Director.
