Books, not bullets
Malala Yousafzai calls for educational support at
Oslo Summit:
by Aruna Dutt
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Afghan education activist, Malala
Yousafzai, spoke of her mission to bring 12 years of education to all
children, rather than the previous goal of nine years, at the final day
of the Oslo Summit on Education for Development.At the July 6-7 summit,
global leaders gathered to discuss solutions to the crisis of 59 million
out of school children in the world.
Yousafzai said she believes that when it comes to the policy
decisions being made in education, they need to be backed by goals which
aim higher.
“If nine years of education is not enough for your children, then it
is not enough for the rest of the world’s children,” Yousafzai told
attendees. She disputed the idea that there are not enough resources,
urging some of the money invested in war to be shifted to education.
“Thirty-nine billion dollars is spent on [the world’s militaries] in
only eight days,” she noted.
If developing countries devoted six per cent of their gross domestic
product to education, it would take eight days of military spending a
year to successfully put all children in school by 2030.
Quality of education
This funding is not only necessary to bring children into school, it
is also desperately needed to enhance the quality of their education, as
summit participants discussed Brigi Rafini, Prime Minister of the
Republic of Niger, claimed that education without quality is worse than
no education.
The three important linkages which enhance the quality of education,
as agreed by both President of Japan’s International Cooperation Agency
Akihiko Tamaka, and the Secretary General of Education International
Fred Van Leeuwen, are quality of teaching, quality of the curriculum,
lessons and assessments and quality of community and environment.
Improving teacher training was brought up multiple times during the
summit. Tamaka stated that teachers are the core of education and they
need to be encouraged to continue learning. Overall, valuing the
profession of teaching was given great importance at the summit, keeping
in mind that many violent attacks at schools are aimed at
teachers.Regarding curriculum, the lack of textbooks in languages which
children understand was stressed as an important issue. According to the
United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
students from minority communities are often pushed out of education
because the language of instruction is not their own.
The importance of funding for education, various options and complex
realities articulated by this summit will lead the decisions made at the
upcoming International Financing for Development Conference, which
begins July 13 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hopefully increasing the
percentage of humanitarian aid which is spent on education to much more
than the current 1.7 per cent.
- IPS
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