Check out this youth perspective on the global education week in Washington DC
This is an important week for global education. The World Bank, the United Nations Secretary General and his Special Envoy on Global Education, Gordon Brown are convening a meeting with finance and education ministers from 8 countries – which collectively make up about half of the out-of-school children in the world.
The high level steering committee for the United Nations Global Education First Initiative will also hold its second meeting this week in DC. All these events point to a renewed momentum on accelerating the progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While we appreciate the increased interest in the post-2015 process, as young people, we are not giving up on actually meeting the MDG goals on time by 2015. Our message this week to these world leaders is that we cannot take our eyes off the ball. We can’t just keep setting new goals, if we do not do our best to meet the old ones. It’s like being promoted to a new class when you have not earned the grades to graduate from your current class. Students know that it does not work that way!
We can’t just keep setting new goals, if we do not do our best to meet the old ones. It’s like being promoted to a new class when you have not earned the grades to graduate from your current class.
The MDGs expire in less than 1,000 days – and what do we do?
It’s now less than 1,000 days to the expiration of the MDGs and as I write this blog about 61 million children are still out of school. Equally shocking is the fact that 250 million children and young people are in school, but not learning. As young people, we simply consider this an unacceptable failure. These are numbers that require a concerted emergency response to change this situation. More than half of those out-of-school kids are girls and more than a third of that number are children in conflict areas or fragile states. As a youth representative, these numbers prick my conscience and should mobilize some concrete action this week as the countdown to the MDGs kick in.
Have we done our best to guarantee that every child realize the basic, fundamental human rights to go to school and learn? Unfortunately, despite some significant progress, I am not sure world leaders and governments can answer in the affirmative. But we have an opportunity to change this. After major progress in the 1990s on education aid for example, funding has stalled in the past five years and even reduced in the past two. In fact, more donor funds are now going to middle income countries than to conflict-affected and fragile states that have the direst needs. If this does not sound right to you, it’s because it’s not.
Being born in a poor country or one affected by conflict, like I was, should not constitute a permanent life sentence.
Every child deserves a chance!
Failing to invest in these countries means failing girls and the most marginalized children in these countries. It is a deliberate endorsement of a vicious cycle of ignorance, war and poverty. I know about this. I come from Sierra Leone, a country that is both poor and was affected by more than a decade long war. With some luck, being a refugee did not stop me from acquiring an education. My education helped me to play a role in the peace process in my country. Because of this, I continue to work on the global stage for education and help to unleash the ‘girl effect’ in Ethiopia. I often point out that there are only a few stories like mine and that they do not prove that everyone has a chance. Young people here at these meetings in Washington DC and around the world do not accept less than a chance for every child anywhere in the word.
We want a world where everyone, irrespective of their circumstances, has opportunities to enjoy the fundamental human right to a good quality education. Luck is simply not enough!
Let’s focus on girls
Together, we also want a world where girls have the same opportunities as boys, where they are not forced into marriage but given the chance to have an identity, and fulfill their dreams. It has to be a world where no form of discrimination, based on disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or any other consideration is allowed to stand.
We want to help to make this world a better world
But we are urging world leaders to go much further than that, because access to education alone is not enough. We want a world where what we learn in school and out of school prepare us to be global citizens. A world where we learn how best to confront the challenges that our generation will face – and how to make it a better world. That will mean an education that prepares us for a good life, including the values of tolerance, peace, civics, human rights and justice, and sexuality education based on science. Of course it should prepare us for livelihood and work.
Yes, we want a different, better world. And this time around, as young people, we are taking a seat at the table to define this new world and are active partners in creating it!
We hope you’ll get involved in helping children learn and grow, and join our conversation on Facebook and Twitter.