The 2022 ECOSOC youth forum gave us the opportunity to engage with Member States and other actors on concrete actions to rebuild from COVID-19 and advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here are our perspectives on critical issues for education transformation and why engaging with youth is vital to building a world where no child is left behind.

Ensuring girls are safe in school

Education remains the most effective tool of empowerment, but factors such as teenage pregnancy, early and forced marriage, poverty, sexual harassment, and neglect continue to work against efforts by stakeholders to keep girls in school.

In Ghana, girls still miss out on school during their menstrual cycle because they can’t afford sanitary pads, while the prices of menstrual hygiene products continue to soar. Many girls continue to suffer sexual harassment at the hands of teachers with statistics indicating that 52% of Ghanaian girls have endured violence at school.

More needs to be done to complement ongoing efforts, especially at the local level. Instituting and enforcing policies that will best serve the welfare of girls should be prioritized. For example, with GPE’s support, the government of Ethiopia has made many schools more girl-friendly. It created private spaces where girls can manage their periods comfortably so they do not have to miss school.

In addition, strong support mechanisms should be established to help victims of sexual harassment and ensure that offenders are arrested and punished for their crimes. Such interventions can be expanded and eventually become the norm in all schools.

Prioritizing inclusive education

For education to be truly inclusive, all children should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of mental, physical and communication abilities.

The mental health of young people was severely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Young people especially need to feel actively involved in society, to be a part of something, and the lack of that feeling has negatively impacted their wellbeing.

We need to continue efforts and raise awareness to help ensure that youth with disabilities are included in all activities. These sessions about children's rights and types of disabilities should happen on a regular basis with the staff, families and communities.

It is very important to support "learning to earning" for young people with disabilities. Through training for both young people with disabilities and employers, we support young people with disabilities to learn skills, such as arts and crafts or cooking, to be able to have a job that will provide autonomy and independence. A holistic approach is needed so that all the services they need are available.

Youth partnership for action

The world is currently reimagining and reinventing educational practices that respond to the current needs of the labor market. Today’s youth play an integral role in transforming education. Many education systems are progressively embracing technology to advance the quality of education.

We all know the magnitude of youth’s influence on technology. Having that in mind, and in light of and  a growing population, it is crucial to involve youth in creating a new direction for learning and teaching.

Young people are developing new technologies and solutions to improve traditional education practices to meet their needs. Creating partnerships that accelerate these solutions is the key to reaching an extended range of learners and solving big problems in education.

For example, O’Genius Priority developed an education platform and partnered with the Rwandan Ministry of Education and the Mastercard Foundation to strengthen distance learning and reduce the learning losses brought by the pandemic. This partnership reached all 30 districts in Rwanda and is one of many that had an incredible impact in the education space.

We hope to intensify youth partnerships by enabling each partner to bring what they are capable of delivering to the table. We need heavy investments in the education ecosystem and youth to ensure sustainability. We must provide space for youth to innovate for education and support their innovations to grow. By doing so, the results will be exponential.