This post is a summary of four articles, The first with the imcomplete title above, was published at http://www.un.org/press/en/2013/sgsm14784.doc.htm. The second was published at https://blog.myworld2015.org/2013/04/10/the-world-has-voted-and-a-good-education-is-top-priority/. The third was published at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/why-education-should-top-the-development-agenda/. The fourth was published at http://www.hewlett.org/programs/global-development-population/quality-education
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the World Economic Forum session in the Global Education Imperative in Davos, Switzerland. Education must be a top priority of the global political and development agendas, As the title of this session says, this is not an option, but an imperative. First, education empowers people and transforms lives. None of us here could ever imagine what our lives and those of our children would be wnthout education. Education gives people hope, confidence and dignity. It equips them with knowledge and skills to escape poverty. It saves lives and reduces the spread of preventable diseases. Second, education fosters economic growth. Every dollar spent in quality education generates strong positive returns for our global economy. With unemployment rising so dramatically, we need, more than ever, to invest in relevant education. Many jobseekers do not have the skills that new jobs need. We can not afford a "lost generation". Third, education is the foundation for a more peaceful and sustainable future. By influencing people's attitudes and behaviours, education is a key channel for better mutual understanding tolerance and respect for each other and our planet. The three priorities of Global Education First are: First, to put every child in school. Second, to improve the quality of learning. Third, to foster global citizenship.
It is very encouraging news that people around the world have ranked "a good education" as their top choice in the the UN’s My World poll on post-2015 priorities. It is too early to celebrate yet, however. There are recent signs that advocates have to work even harder to demonstrate that education is not only a fundamental goal in it is own right but also a crucial route to achieving other development goals. Better healthcare, improving governance and protecting the environment are certainly key issues. So are food security, gender equality, job creation, clean water and other priorities listed in the My World Poll. What they all have in common is that education makes them happen. Education should be front and centre in the post-2015 development framework not just becasue it is essential in itself and a human right but also because it empowers people to look after themselves, their families, their communities and their environment. Here are just a few examples of how education builds a foundation for reaching other development goals: * Education reduces poverty - If all children in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, 170 million people could be lifted out of poverty. *Education promotes health - Women with secondary education are far more likely to be aware of measures for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, for example. the Millennium Development Goals have often been criticised for being designed with a "top-down" approach. The UN and high-level panel are doing their utmost to ensure that this time around, the process is more consultative. For this reason, it would be wrong to ignore the clear message coming through the My World Poll that a good education is the priority for the world after 2015.
Few people would dispute the importance of education in our lives and those of our children. For good reason, in virtually all industrialized countries, education is compulsory for at least 10 years. In developing countries, however, 60 million children of school age are not at school. Yet instead of making a concerted global effort to bring all children to school, less than 4% of official development assistance funds basic education. Many thinks education is an aspect of social development that comes as a by-product of economic growth. This is wrong. Education is an absolutely necessary precondition of economic development. Bill Clinton's famous mantra, "It is the economy, stupid!!!", may be a useful slogan for a election campaign, but it is misleading in setting the priorities for sustainable development. It is not primarily the economy, nor money, that makes the world go round and determines progress in human well-being. Much more important than the content of people's wallets is the content in their heads. And what is in our heads is formed and enhanced by education which, in turn, helps fill the wallets, improves health, improves society and the quality of institutions, strengthens resilience at all levels and even makes people happier. I could discuss the ample scientific statistical analysis to prove the transformative role of education in development. But more convincing may be historical success stories. Finland was one of the poorest countries in Europe in the late 19th century. In 1869 it suffered great famine. Almost half of the children died in this poorly educated economy based on subsistence agriculture. After that tragedy, the government launched a radical education campaign: young people could marry only after they passed a literacy test. The number of elementary school teachers increased and by the beginning of the 20th century all young men and women in Finland had basic education. In 1906, Finland was the first country in Europe to grant women the right to vote and the subsequent economic development, based primarily on human capital, made Finland one of the world's leaders in technology, innovation and, as a result, competitiveness. Japan, Singapore, South Korea and finally China have similar stories but the timing is different. The Chinese experience shows that such success is not confined to tiny island or city states. The highly appreciation of education in Confucion tradition became transformative for the country. These countries built their stunning success stories primarily on improvements in human capital and without significant raw materials or international assistance. Economic growth followed the education expansion. There is little doubt about the cause and effect between education and human well-being. Neurological research shows that every learning experience builds new synapses making our brains physiologically different for the rest of our lives. Education expands the personal horizon and leads to more rational decisions. It clearly empowers people to access more information, contextualize it and make conclusions that are more conducive to personal and societal well-being. Well educated people are better at adopting good habits such as physical exercise, safe sex or quitting smoking. Education has many other effects on health, besides the commonly cited effects on income and employment. Now we need to educate the policy-makers to make it a higher priority in the development agenda.
Education is essential to economic development. Citizens who can read, calculate, and think critically have better economic opportunities, higher agricultural productivity, and healthier children. Fundamental educational skills form the basis for future learning, but today too many students across the developing world are missing out. Many more children enroll in school today than a decade ago, an achievement brought about by policy changes at the international and national levels. But the promises of greater enrollments may not pay off. Just enrolling in and attending school does not guarantee mastery of even the most basic skills. The Hewlett Foundation working with Bill Gates Foundation, established an initiative to focus on ensuring that children learn. These foundations supports global advocacy efforts to improve children's learning. Its grantmaking activities are concentrated in three areas: 1) Measure learning - Grantees are working to increase awareness and accountability for student learning by improving public knowledge about learning outcomes. 2) Improve instruction - Grantees are working to support the development of effective instruction that improves student learning in schools at low cost. 3) Track resources - Grantees are working to advocate for sufficient resources to improve educational quality, and for those resources to be used efficiently. In the past decade. millions of poor families have sacrificed scarce family income to put their children in school in the hopes that education will put young students on a pathway out of poverty. However, many children are not learning the basis of literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking during their foundations years. Failures to address learning outcomes now could lead to a serious crisis several years from now as students exit the system without any learning gains. This learning gap threatens future development and will be an obstacle to productive lives for many
