January 24th 2024 will mark the sixth International Day of Education, a global day created to acknowledge and celebrate the role that education plays in fostering peace and sustainable development. On this day, events are held across the globe to highlight the importance of achieving quality education for all – a vital sustainable development goal, and a human right. The day is also aimed to draw attention to the critical role education has in promoting development, gender equality, and social mobility. Indeed, when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in September 2015, the global community recognised education as crucial for the success of all 17 of the goals.
The theme of the International Day of Education this year is “learning for lasting peace”. This is particularly relevant in light of the alarming levels of violence and conflict witnessed towards the end of 2023 compounded by the fact that a quarter of the global population live in conflict-affected areas.
The promise of education for all
The International Day of Education takes place within a global policy framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, with SDG 4 aiming to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030. This reflects an international consensus around education as a basic human right that has emerged since the 1924 Geneva Resolution of the Rights of the Child. he Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 further emphasised this principle in Article 26, advocating for free and compulsory primary education. Building on these foundations, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child took a step forward by urging nations to make higher education accessible to all.
The practical translation of these policies into action gained further momentum with the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar, which endorsed the goal of achieving Education for all by 2015. Concurrently, the Millenium Development Goals the Millennium Development Goals aimed at universal primary education, resulting in substantial progress in education provision worldwide. Notably, the number of out-of-school children and adolescents has decreased by almost half since 2000, underscoring the tangible impact of these global initiatives.
The current state of play
Despite these promising advances, progress has since stalled. According to UNESCO, today there are 250 million children and youth out of school, and 763 million adults are unable to read or write, limiting their ability to participate in and contribute to their communities. COVID-19 school closures and disruptions owing to conflict and other crises have exacerbated this situation, with many children falling behind or missing out on education completely. Save the Children states that at the end of 2021, up to 1 in 5 children in some countries had dropped out of school because of rising poverty, child marriage, and the need to work to support their families – pressures compounded by the pandemic. This in turn has had drastic effects on the protection of children, their health, and future opportunities open to them.
Impactful innovations in education
There are however reasons to be hopeful, with a vast array of organisations and initiatives driving impactful innovations to support every child to flourish through quality education. The breadth and depth of initiatives rising to the education challenge is highlighted by HundrEd, a global organisation specialised in education innovation and with a mission to identify, amplify, and facilitate the implementation of impactful and scalable education innovations. Such initiatives are tackling a diverse range of educational themes and issue areas from Social Emotional Learning approaches to the development of Gender Responsive Pedagogy in bridging the gender gap, and EdTech solutions providing education amongst displacement populations.
Fundación Escuela Nueva is an example of an organisation that has been providing educational innovation over the longer term. Founded over 30 years ago to improve educational opportunities for the most vulnerable children in rural Colombia, it is now a large foundation influencing government policy in several developing countries. Their guiding philosophy is that education should be accessible, high-quality, and relevant to students. The child-centred model centres cooperative, constructive, personalised and active learning, empowering students as part of a self-governing community.
Various other groundbreaking initiatives are revolutionising traditional educational paradigms, specifically tailored to confront the distinctive challenges encountered by marginalised and remote communities. These innovative solutions encompass a spectrum of approaches, including mobile learning apps, nomadic classrooms, community-based learning centres, and mobile libraries with book-sharing initiatives. Globally, organisations are dedicated to introducing creative and impactful solutions, actively working to address the educational needs of remote and marginalised communities. These pioneering approaches extend beyond breaking down barriers; they empower individuals, stimulate community development, and serve as the bedrock for constructing a more inclusive and equitable global education landscape.
A call for transformative education
As the mission statement of SDG 4 suggests, education for all is not just a question of expanding access to education, but of providing a quality education that is also inclusive and equitable. If education is to realise its potential as a powerful tool to both address and prevent key global challenges such as the climate and ecological emergency, rising levels of inequality and discrimination, and surging violence and conflict, it must be a transformative process. As UNESCO states, transformative “learning for lasting peace” must empower learners with the knowledge, understanding, values, attitudes and skills they need to become agents of positive change and peace in their communities.
The good news is the huge number of innovative educational initiatives seeking to do exactly that. Continuous innovation in education is key if we want to equip children with the core skills and knowledge to create a sustainable future. It’s within this wider context of the purpose of education that the awareness-raising aims of the International Day of Education take on a crucial purpose – to mobilise the global community to realise the promises of a transformative education for all.
https://hundred.org/en/innovations/290#9b802c4d
https://unesco.org.uk/events/international-days/international-day-of-education/
https://www.un.org/en/observances/education-day
https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/international-day-of-education-2024