World to mark int’l day of education on Jan 24

27 / 12 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

The world will mark the 2021 International Day of Education on January 24 under the theme ‘Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation’.

Now is the time to power education by stepping up collaboration and international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the center of the recovery.

The global event for the day will be planned along three main segments; learning heroes, innovations, and financing. It will be organized in partnership with the UNESCO New York Office, UNHQ, the Global Partnership for Education and the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CRI), and feature the participation of partners from the Global Education Coalition.

Capturing the spirit of the International Day of Education, CRI and UNESCO have spearheaded a Learning Planet Festival to celebrate learning in all contexts and share innovations that fulfill the potential of every learner, no matter what their circumstances. The CRI will also be unveiling the winners of an essay contest of “Le Petit Prince.”

Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.

Today, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable.

This third International Education Day occurs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a global learning disruption of unprecedented scale and severity.

The closure of schools, universities and other learning institutions, as well as the interruption of many literacy and lifelong learning programs, has affected the lives of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries.

As a new year begins, now is the time to step up collaboration and international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the center of the recovery and the transformation towards more inclusive, safe and sustainable societies.

This International Education Day aims to highlight commitments and follow-up actions taken to protect education through the recovery, increase inclusion and combat drop-out.

It also aims to celebrate initiatives being led by governments, educators, organizations—from global to grassroots efforts—as well as partnerships demonstrating the potential to recommit education to the principles of equity and relevance

It is also meant to highlight best practices in laws and policies on equitable finance for education that effectively and efficiently target the most disadvantaged via a tool featured on UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report website, PEER.

This day is also meant to give voice to the COVID-19 generation to express their concerns and aspirations in the face of a future marked by an economic recession and climate change.