Today January 24 is celebrated for the first time International Education Day, proclaimed on December 3 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, with the aim of recognizing the role that education plays in our society, essential for achieving peace and contributing to development.
Unfortunately, there are still too many inequalities that prevent millions of children from accessing quality education, inclusive and without gender discrimination that allows them to move forward and have a better future.
According to the United Nations, education is the essential means to eradicate poverty and hunger, helps improve health, and promotes equality between men and women, as well as peace, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
The right to education
Education is collected as a fundamental right of all human beings that allows them to acquire knowledge and thus achieve a full social life. The right to education is vital for the economic, social and cultural development of all societies.
In Babies and more Ten changes in education that our children need and deserve"The right to education of these people is affected and this is unacceptable," emphasizes the institution in a statement that ends up insisting that in the celebration of this day UNESCO "urges governments" to convert universal education Quality in a top priority. "We urgently need a call for collective action in favor of education worldwide," insists UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
Data that alert
The new data published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Monitoring Report on Education in the World, reveal that there is still a lot of work to do:
- 262 million children and young people do not attend school
- 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and lack the basic knowledge of mathematics
- The poorest children and youth in low-income countries are ½ less likely to finish primary school than the richest
- 1 child in 11 does not go to primary school
- 1 teenager in 5 cannot access secondary education
- Children in rural areas are more than twice as likely not to attend school as children living in urban areas in low-income countries
- Less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete the first level of secondary education and about four million children and young refugees are not in school.
Starting today, every January 24 we will celebrate International Education Day. Hopefully, little by little, progress will be made so that all the children in the world can access it.
