How Education Crisis Threatens Economic Development
World leaders pledged Wednesday to tackle the education crisis that is holding back millions of children and threatening economic development.
The leaders met at an event at United Nations Headquarters in New York with the objective of securing finance for the critical education goal.
“Financing education is indeed the best investment we can make for a better world and a better future,” suggested UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his remarks to the event, titled “Financing the Future: Education 2030.”
According to the UN, more than 260 million children, adolescents and youth are out of school. Despite some progress in achieving gender equality in the world’s poorest countries, far more girls than boys still do not have access to a quality education.
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Also addressing the event was UN Messenger of Peace Malala Yousafzai, who said girls in many parts of the world are pushing back against poverty, war and child marriage to go to school.
“We have big goals, but we will not reach any of them unless we educate girls,” she said, referring to the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by UN Member States in 2015.
The event – co-organized by governments, the private sector, civil society and UN agencies – was held to boost political commitment and investment in quality early-childhood, primary and secondary education.
“Delivering an education to all – and not just some children – is the civil rights struggle of our time,” said Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education.
