PURPOSE: The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. Education transforms lives and breaks the cycle of poverty that traps so many children. Education for girls is essential — an educated mother will make sure her children go to and stay in school. This is fundamental, especially when more than 250 million children and youth are out of school globally, and most of those in school are not acquiring the basic skills. Additionally, 44 million teachers are needed to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030. These challenges are compounded further by the lack of adequate resources for education. More than 70% of countries allocate less than 4% of GDP to education.
FORUM: “Learning for lasting peace.“ International Day of Education 2024. The world is seeing a surge of violent conflicts paralleled by a concerning rise of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and hate speech. According to the Global Peace Index 2023, the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated for the 13th time in the last 15 years. 2022 was recorded as the deadliest year since 1994, the year of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Yugoslav wars. In 2022, the overall global economic impact of violence increased by USD 1 trillion to a total of about 17.5 trillion, almost a quarter of global GDP. In our interconnected and interdependent world, these numbers do not capture the magnitude of human suffering, nor of the shocks they cause to the societal fabric around the world. The impact of conflicts is felt far beyond war zones and transcends any boundary based on geography, gender, race, religion, politics, offline and online, and leaves a legacy of traumas. Hate speech, in particular, not only causes harm at the personal level and can incite group-targeted violence: it is also an attack on inclusion, diversity and human rights. In this context, an active commitment to peace is more urgent than ever. This commitment ought to surpass security and defense measures to prevent or stop conflicts, for peace does not begin where violence ends. Sustaining peace requires a strong foundation of inclusive, democratic and participatory governance, dialogue, solidarity, mutual understanding and cooperation, sustainable development, gender equality and the general realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Education is key to this endeavor. This pertinent role of education should reverberate in the ongoing negotiations towards a Pact for the Future to be launched at the Summit of the Future in 2024. The Education for peace needs to be transformative at its core, as jointly underlined by the UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development, and the report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education which calls for a new social contract for education. Anchored on a strong foundation of accessibility, equity and quality, education, especially when mainstreamed in global peacebuilding efforts, can play a protective role when there is a continuity of learning, especially for those marginalized during conflict. Education can also contribute to redressing inequities inequalities and injustices by ensuring that all learners are represented and recognized in all facets of education. Lastly, it can facilitate post-conflict recovery justice and reconciliation. Education placed at the center of our commitment to peace can help empower learners with the necessary knowledge, values, attitudes and skills and behaviours to become agents of peace in their immediate communities. As conceptualized in UNESCO’s Global Citizenship Education, these defenses of peace include cognitive, social and emotional skills, and behavioural competencies to, for example, address issues ranging from hate speech and discrimination to all violent conflicts. The International Day of Education 2024 aims to:
Mobilize Member States and partners to maintain education at the top of the political agenda and deliver on their TES and Education 2030 commitments;
Generate visibility at the local and global levels on the importance of education in strengthening and sustaining peace, as outlined in SDG4 Target 4.7, and other global education efforts;
Advocate for higher levels of domestic and international financing for education in general, and education for peace in particular, especially through innovative and multistakeholder mechanisms and partnerships;
Highlight and celebrate the peacemaking role of youth and educators in and through education towards just, inclusive and peaceful societies;
Provide a platform to discuss priorities and challenges for education for peace in contexts of increased protracted global crisis and conflicts;
Rally influencers and the wider civil society to push forward the movement to bring education into the center of local national regional and global peacebuilding efforts;
Raise awareness for effective approaches in education for peace and mobilize commitment for their implementation.
Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #EndLearningPoverty, #Education2030, #DayofEducation, #24January, #EducationforPeace, #Learningforpeace, #education, SDG4.
EVENT: On January 24th, the celebration of the International Day of Education 2024 with the theme “Learning for lasting peace.” will be held at UNESCO Heaquaters in Paris. Learning for peace must be transformative, and help empower learners with the necessary knowledge, values, attitudes and skills and behaviours to become agents of peace in their communities. A transformed and well-resourced education system can be an effective long-term preventative tool that protect, build and sustain peace before, during and after conflict. Before conflict, such an education can lay the preventative foundations that make conflicts difficult to erupt by helping all learners realize their fundamental human right to accessible and equitable quality education. Read UNESCO’s concept note for the 2024 celebration, download the programme and watch the event.
STATEMENTS: Read the Statement by the United Nations Secretary-General on International Day of Education 2024; January 24th and the Statement of the Director-General of the UNESCO on International Day of Education 2024; January 24th.
PODCASTS: We launched a global platform to sustain political mobilization, and strengthen our commitments to deliver quality education for all. It’s time to Step up public engagement in favour of education as the path to peace, sustainable development and individual and collective well-being. Listen to the audio-podcasts!
CAMPAIGN MATERIALS: Join the 2024 International Day of Education Campaign “Learning for lasting peace.“. Take action to End Learning Poverty through equitable, resilient, and effective education systems as well as lifelong learning opportunities. Explore the UNESCO’s ‘‘Right To Education’’ campaign and help spread the word to ensure that everyone has the right to education. Get the Communication materials!
WHY WE CELEBRATE IT!
For the first time in human history, an entire generation of children globally have had their education disrupted. And yet, this emergency comes on top of an existing learning crisis. Even before the pandemic struck, millions of children were not going to school and not learning.
ACTIONS
Generate visibility from local to global level on prioritizing education to reach the SDGs ahead of the SDG Summit, building on the outcomes of the TES.
Promote and showcase the national statements of commitment at country level and mobilize political and financial support for translating them into action.
Encourage wide take-up of the global initiatives launches at the TES to accelerate foundational learning, get every learner climate ready through greening education, promote public digital learning, advance gender equality in and through education and ensure learning continuity in situations of emergency and protracted crisis.
Advocate for higher levels of domestic and international financing, including through innovative sources, building on commitments at the TES.
Provide youth a platform to build on the TES youth declaration, relay their demands and showcase their initiatives and innovations to advance the right to education.
Rally influencers to push forward the global education movement calling on world leaders to stand by their commitments and prioritize investment in education and educational transformation.
Partners
The International Day of Education is organized in partnership with the UNESCO New York Office, UNHQ, the Global Partnership for Education and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CRI), the Global Education Coalition. With the participation of State governments, the International and Regional organizations, the Civil society organizations; rhe Non-Governmental Organizations, the teachers, The Education professionals, the private sector and academics.
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Every child deserves the opportunity to learn. We work around the world to reach those children who are missing out most on learning and education. Globally, we ensure that no child’s learning stops because they are caught up in crisis. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, 258 million children were out of school, including 130 million girls. And even when children were at school, many were not learning. The world’s children deserve better.