On December 3, 2018, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution, which declared January 24 as the ‘International Day of Education’ in order to promote education and make it accessible to all. The adoption of the resolution was co-authored by Nigeria and 58 other member states that demonstrated the unwavering political will to support transformative actions for inclusive, equitable and quality education for all.
The theme for this year is “Learning for people, planet, prosperity, and peace”. According to UN, “The 2020 celebration will position education and the learning it enables as humanity’s greatest renewable resource and reaffirm the role of education as a fundamental right, a public good and an enabler of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It will frame ‘inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all’ as a goal in and of itself, as well as a necessary means to accelerate progress to meet the targets of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals..”
Furthermore, according to statistics by UN, “about 265 million children and adolescents around the world do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable.”
Education is a human right and key to development & peace – yet globally 258 million children & youth are not in school.
More on Friday’s #EducationDay. https://t.co/jVynpiRQDS pic.twitter.com/0yWm4z6wyL
— United Nations (@UN) January 24, 2020
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Also read: 1 in 3 adolescent girls from poor households never been to school: UNICEF