Africa-Press – Botswana. The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, this Monday urged governments around the world to increase funding for education, stressing that this is the “most important investment any country can make”.
Guterres spoke on the last day of the Summit on Education Transformation, one of the main events of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. He praised Education as “transforming lives, economies and societies”, but stressed that it also needs transformation, as it is in a “deep crisis”.
The Secretary-General warned that about 70 percent of 10-year-olds in poor countries are unable to read a basic text, explaining that developed nations too suffer from problems, where “education systems often consolidate, rather than reduce, inequalities, reproducing them across generations”.
“The rich have access to the best resources, schools and universities, leading to the best jobs, while the poor, especially girls, face enormous obstacles to gaining life-changing skills. Displaced people and students with disabilities face the biggest obstacles of all.” indicated, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a “devastating impact on learning around the world”.
Criticizing education systems that encourage machine learning and competition for grades, the UN leader noted that often “school curricula are out of date”, “educational systems give little importance to lifelong learning”, “teachers are poorly trained, undervalued and underpaid”, the “digital divide penalizes poor students” and the “Education funding gap is wider than ever”.
“We are not going to end this crisis simply by doing more of the same, faster or better. Now is the time to transform education systems,” he appealed.
The Education Transformation Summit, which began last Friday, brought together young people, teachers, civil society and other organizations in New York to support the transformation of Education around the world, as well as members of Governments, from whom a series of National Declarations of Commitment is expected.
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