No more excuses: prioritize education

Yesterday on International Youth Day, I was honored to be part of a panel during Education Cannot Wait’s “Stronger together: Education in emergencies & protracted crisis” event moderated by DevEx’s Raj Kumar alongside the UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, youth advocate for refugees Deborah Kamulbi and Canada’s Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, Kamal Khera.

During the conversation I was asked about how we can bring more children to school during emergencies and why Theirworld and other civil society organizations called the lead-up to the recent Syria donors conference a “gross failure of political leadership for education.”

To me, it’s simple: we cannot tolerate political amnesia at a time when the lives of millions of children are at stake.

In 2016, leaders pledged to put every Syrian refugee child to school within two years. Progress was made, and at some points it looked like it would happen. In fact, had we kept moving in the right direction, this goal would have been achieved by 2020. But as political will wavered, so did progress. At today’s rate of progress, the last refugee child in the region will not be in school until 2037 – nearly two decades later!

This is unacceptable.

Prioritizing education in emergencies goes far beyond Syria. Across the globe about 75 million children have their education disrupted due to emergency, conflict and disaster. Exacerbated by Covid-19, the challenge is even greater. From Africa and South Asia to Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, children are missing out on school and opportunity simply because they have fallen victim to tragedies beyond their control.

The solution is within grasp to provide inclusive and equitable quality education for every child.

We know how to deliver results in education – and have all of the tools and resources at our disposal to make it possible. We know how to train teachers. We know what materials support learning. We know how to provide quality early childhood development and psychosocial support.  We know what works (and doesn't) in terms of distance education and technology. And adequate resources exist, even during these difficult times.

In short, we have no excuses. But do we have the political will to make it happen? 

It’s time to shift beyond rhetoric and take action to bring more children to school and improve the quality of education in emergencies -- from hotspots in Greece, South Sudan or the US Southern border to refugees from Bangladesh, Syria and Venezuela. 

In today’s world, the chance of an education is the only thing that keeps many people optimistic for a better future—and this is something we cannot deny to anyone, especially to a child impacted by conflict, disaster, violence and war. Education unlocks big change: it is the solution to improved public health, economic recovery, quality job creation, innovation, peace and stability, and climate change.

On International Youth Day, this call to action is more important than ever before. I am inspired daily by young people who are holding today’s leaders to account and advocating for a better future. Empty promises are no longer enough.