What do former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta have in common with Leroy Philips, Esther van Duin, Chernor Bah and 27 other youngsters? They all took part in the Global Partnership for Education’s Second Replenishment Conference last week in order to enable more children around the world to enjoy a quality education, just as they've had.
Quality education is not just about numbers and letters, but also about empowerment
It is about equipping children and youth to be vocal citizens who stand up for their rights. The youngsters attending the GPE conference were doing just that: standing up for their rights and those of their peers. All over the world children and youth are facing challenges: girls are kept out of school because they are required to do chores in their homes or because schools are unsafe; disabled children are denied access altogether or do not receive the attention and support they need; books are missing and teachers are poorly trained; schooling is disrupted by violence.
These barriers are all too real for many of my fellow youth delegates who were at the meeting in Brussels. Anoyara, a 17-year-old from India, was inspired to hear the education ministers is attendance assert that investing education is key to preventing child marriages and human trafficking, a horrifying experience she herself experienced. For Salathiel from Burundi the call to ensure children remain in school and learning even during conflict resonated loudly as he remembers his educational gap years as a refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Leroy and Nicole stood alongside ministers and heads of donor agencies as they collectively trumpeted the importance of including disabled children in mainstream schools, after both having struggled to get their own place in school as a blind boy in Guyana and a handicapped girl in Kenya.
Different roles of youth advocates
However, not all of the youth in attendance have confronted such barriers to education. Many in the group of youth delegates were able to reflect on what they have achieved #BecauseofSchool and appreciate the opportunity too few of their peers have. Because of school, Jana from Belgium and Yoadan from Ethiopia have been able to travel the world as a Global Youth Ambassadors and share their skills and knowledge with other youth. Because of school, three Dutch youth delegates— Frits, Ilona and Esther—have been empowered to collectively represent Dutch youth as UNESCO youth ambassadors and lobbied Dutch policy makers at the conference to reinvest in education as an important development priority for their country. At the same time, Ibrahim from Yemen (27) collected reflections from all policy makers on how they engaged youngsters in their policy-making, whereas Alex from the United Kingdom collected fresh ideas on a huge ‘Idea wall’ on education in times of conflict and girls’ education, among others.
Indeed, both on and off stage, the youth delegates spoke out to increase investments in education. We called on our governments to include clear priorities to attain quality education for all to be included in the post-2015 development goals. And the power of social media was embraced by us fully, to the extent that #fundeducation was even trending on twitter!
The battle is not over
On June 26th US$28.5 billion were pledged by developing country partners, donors governments, private sector and civil society alike. This is a monumental testament to the global commitment to education. Yet the battle is not yet won. The youth gathered in Belgium have only begun their crusade to continue to strive for quality education for all.
We are committed to holding our governments to account for their pledges and ensuring that youth have a voice in the governance structures of all members of the GPE partnership – including on the GPE board.
In their pledge, Plan International stated that students should not just be recipients of education, but active participants. Neither should students be recipients of educational policies, but participants in designing it as well!