UNESCO calls for investment in girls' education

Irina Bokova, left, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, speak during the second annual Global Education and Skills Forum at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), March 17.

By Kwon Ji-youn

DUBAI ― The education of girls will be a game changer in transforming society, said Irina Bokova, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“It is the key to sustainable development,” she said, addressing an audience of some 1,100 delegates from around the world during the second annual Global Education and Skills Forum at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel on March 17.

UNESCO, the Varkey GEMS Foundation, the UAE Ministry of Education and Dubai Cares co-organized the three-day forum in support of the Global Education First Initiative.

“In order to achieve this objective, UNESCO seeks to increase partners, geographic reach and resources. A huge challenge in the global effort will remain unsuccessful without investing in education for girls. Private-public partnerships are therefore critical in this area,” she said.

Bokova added that education is a factor that decides the future and competitiveness of economies.

“The world is very young,” she said. “More than 50 percent of the world’s population is below 30 and the new type of economy that is emerging also needs a new shift in the paradigm of development and sustainability.”

Bokova noted that education for girls and women is lagging behind, and that education is an extremely transformative force for change, ranging across the environmental, economic and social sectors.

She called for a strong commitment to education in terms of putting it on the political global agenda and advancement in the quality of learning. She encouraged private investment and private-public partnerships to focus more on education for girls.

“It’s important to show that change and success in education is achievable although we’re not satisfied with the pace of this success,” she said.

“We need to put education first. Education is the best investment that governments and private sectors can make. Invest in girls’ education, in quality education, in teachers.

“Now that we are formulating the post-2015 agenda, the U.N. should adopt a standalone goal in access to quality and lifelong learning,” she continued.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton agreed, calling on the private sector to increase investment in education and cooperation with governmental organizations to help educate the world.

“There are still 100 million children who never go to school and at least 200 million more who go but to schools with untrained teachers or inadequate learning materials,” said Clinton who attended the education forum.

“One thing I hope will come out of this is that there will be a greater level of cooperation between the education sector, public and private, with businesses and non-governmental organizations,” he added.

Clinton explained that every $1 invested in education provides $53 in benefits to employees.

“Young people who have education are likely to earn great income, resist conflict and support democracy. Individual quality education is still profoundly important to getting young people off to a good start in life,” he added.

Clinton, the honorary chair of the Varkey GEMS Foundation, stressed the importance of teachers in education and the training of those teachers.

The foundation is a not-for-profit organization established to improve the standards of education for underprivileged children.

He referred to a study released in the U.S. last year that claimed that having one good teacher for a year would dramatically and positively impact the learning capacity of a student in a lifetime.

“There are things we can all do to make a real difference here,” he said. “So much needs to be done and no one and no single government can do it all, given the financial constraints on donors everywhere.”