Three priorities to transform education
UN Secretary General to holds Summit in New York to deal with global education crisis
IPNED urges a focus on three critical priorities: financing, foundational learning, and education for children affected by conflict.
On September 19, the United Nations Secretary-General will convene the Transforming Education Summit (TES) during the 77th UN General Assembly.
The objective of the summit is to mobilise political ambition, action, solutions, and solidarity to transform education: to take stock of efforts to recover pandemic-related learning losses; to reimagine education systems for the world of today and tomorrow; and to revitalise national and global efforts to achieve SDG 4.
The Summit is being convened in the context of two dramatic and deeply interconnected challenges to ensuring quality education and lifelong learning for all.
Among all the urgent needs across the education system IPNEd is calling for the Summit to ensure plans are put in place to do three things.
Close the education funding gap
“If we are to have any chance of accelerating education progress, the Transforming Education Summit must drive a new global effort to close the education financing gap,” said IPNEd Executive Director, Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly.
This will require significantly increased domestic resources for education, combined with improvements in the equity and efficiency of education allocations and spending as well as the use of data.
In the critical weeks ahead of the Transforming Education Summit parliamentarians must make the urgent case to their Heads of State, Ministers of Education and Ministries of Finance to come to New York with serious commitments to transform financing for education.
Speaking at the Pre-Summit in Paris, Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships, urged the international community to “continue to step up its investments. Despite the geopolitical tensions, we cannot fall behind on aid commitments to education.”
Ensure every child learns how to read and do math
Secondly, literacy and numeracy are the foundation of all learning. Yet 9 out of 10 ten-year-olds in low-income countries are not able to read and understand a simple story.
“Foundational skills in reading and math must be a priority for the Summit. Children who fail to master them are at the greatest risk of long-term learning deficits, with a significant impact on their future life chances,” said Nhan-O’Reilly.
“We must affirm our guarantee that every child should have access to school and ensure that schooling guarantees learning, including specifically how to read and do math.”
Priortise children affected by conflict
According to new global estimates published by Education Cannot Wait, 222 million crisis-affected children and adolescents are in need of education support. This is a substantial increase from previous estimates, pointing to the growing impact on children and their education.
Access to a quality education in times of humanitarian crisis is not only the right of every child, it can also be both life-saving and life-sustaining and it must be a priority for the Summit.
Education Cannot Wait is calling for urgent additional financing to reach the 222 million children left furthest behind in emergencies and protracted crises, which should be supported at the Summit.
As UNICEF’s Executive Director, Catherine Russell states, “If we fail to act, these children will pay the highest price. But our societies and economies will also feel the impact for decades to come.”
We need commitments that can transform education
Speaking during the closing session at the Transforming education Pre-Summit in Paris UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said, “When Heads of State come to the UN in September, we need them to speak directly to the education system they envisage for the future and to the commitments they can make now to make this happen – and to how they can ensure transformation through their efforts to drive recovery, SDG acceleration and reimagine education for the future.”
For more about the Transforming Education Summit visit www.un.org/en/transforming-education-summit
Find out more about IPNEd’s priorities for the Summit:
