Youth call on world leaders to stand by their commitments on the International Day of Education
The world celebrated the International Day of Education on 24 January, under the theme ‘To invest in people, prioritize education’.
The Namibia National Commission for UNESCO explained that the Day aimed to generate visibility from local to global levels on prioritizing education to reach the SDGs ahead of the SDG Summit, building on the outcomes of the Times Education Supplement (TES).
Further, they said the Day aimed to promote and showcase the national statements of commitment at a country level and mobilize political and financial support for translating them into action. “We encouraged wide take-up of the global initiatives launched at the TES to accelerate foundational learning, and to get every learner climate ready through greening education, we promoted public digital learning, we advanced gender equality in and through education and ensured learning continuity in situations of emergency and protracted crisis,” they added.
The Commission emphasised that the Day advocated for higher levels of domestic and international financing, including through innovative sources, building on commitment at the TES, raising awareness around the national SDG 4 benchmarking process and how the benchmarks provide an accountability framework from commitments made at the Transforming Education Summit.
“The Day also provided the youth with a platform to build on the TES youth declaration and relay their demands and showcase their initiatives and innovations to advance the right to education,” they said.
They explained that they rallied 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.
Recently pictured on International Day of Education, the European Commissioner, Jutta Urpilainen in Windhoek at an EU Funded Early Childhood Development centre in Mix Settlement on the outskirts of Windhoek interacting with the children. (Photo by Musarasane Kaseke).
