We Can All Be Leaders of Change in Transforming Education

By Anna Molero, Chief Government Officer at Teach For All’s and Leonardo Garnier, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on the Transforming Education Summit

With the Transforming Education Summit coming up in New York, urgency for action is high. We were far from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4—to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all—even before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out 20 years of education gains. In 2019, 57% of ten-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries suffered from “learning poverty,” meaning they were unable to read and understand a simple story. With the pandemic causing educational disruptions for millions more children, that figure has now risen to 70%, according to this year’s “State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” report.

If learning losses are not addressed now, future generations of children and young people will have limited opportunities: the opportunity to learn, to pursue a career and to contribute to the world they will inherit. UNESCO’s Futures of Education Commission envisions investing in education that will lead to learners being empowered to take action and contribute to global peace, sustainable development and societal transformation. If we act collectively now, this alternate future is within reach.

The Transforming Education Summit 2022 is a wake-up call: a call to transform the purpose of education, both why and how we educate. The “Reimagining Our Future Together” report envisions an educational system that unites us around collective endeavours and provides the knowledge, science and innovation needed to shape sustainable futures for all—anchored in social, economic and environmental justice.

This reimagining shows us where we want to go. Transformation is how we actually take action to make this vision a reality. Now is the time to move beyond what we envision and focus on making it happen—from imagination and design to implementation and reality. We cannot let our youth down by missing this opportunity. Having political leadership gather and commit is vital—but it is not enough. What will it take to move from reimagination to the transformation that is urgently needed?

Ahead of the Pre-Summit that took place in Paris, we met with a group of teachers and students from the Teach For All network to ask them this question. Their answer was clear: it will take collective leadership—leadership at all levels within governments, communities, schools, teachers, students and families—working together to create change and transform the systems that hold them back.

This article was first published on the United Nations website, ahead of the Transforming Education Summit that will be held in New York on 16 - 19 September 2022.

Read the full article here: https://www.un.org/en/transforming-education-summit/we-can-all-be-leaders-change-transforming-education