A debate held at the 2017 Global Education and Skills Forum asked four speakers to argue for or against the motion: “This house believes that schools should teach national values over global values.”
GPE Board Chair Julia Gillard, no stranger to parliamentary debates, argued against the motion alongside Emiliana Vegas, Chief of the Education Division at the Inter-American Development Bank. Conservative British MP and former Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove joined London School of Economics Professor Lutfey Siddiqi in arguing in favor of the motion.
The debaters questioned whether global values exist at all, and if yes, what they are, and whether they stand in direct opposition to national values. In her address, Julia Gillard referred to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to defend the global values that all citizens aspire to, and which should be taught in school. She said those values are the same that underline the 17 sustainable development goals.
The debate also asked whether Michael Gove would be a credible James Bond in an alternate reality in which the Nazis won World War II.
Intrigued? Watch the debate below.