Malala Yousafzai, Vanessa Nakate and UN Officials Join Call for New Solution to the Education Crisis

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, leading climate activist Vanessa Nakate, former and current UN Special Rapporteurs, human rights champions and hundreds of thousands of citizens from across the globe launched an open letter to world leaders calling for a new global treaty to expand the right to free education for all children. The call comes days ahead of the unprecedented United Nations “Transforming Education Summit,” where heads of state, ministers, and advocates will convene for the first time to try to find solutions to the global education crisis.

The public letter highlights the dire scale of the education crisis as it impacts children and youth, noting that “244 million children are out of school” globally and “4 in 10 children don’t even finish secondary school.” It adds that, “Children from families living in poverty are least likely to get an education, with many simply unable to afford school fees.”

To help address this emergency and get millions of kids in school, the eminent signers propose creating “a new global treaty that protects children and youth’s right to free education – from pre-primary through secondary school.” Existing international law guarantees all children free primary education , but not free secondary education, and is entirely silent on pre-primary education. An estimated 87% of children complete primary education while secondary completion rates lag far behind with 4 in 10 children not completing secondary school at all. At the pre-primary level, the data is even worse with nearly half  of the world’s children missing out on school (more than 175 million children).

UNESCO estimates that if all adults completed secondary education, global poverty rates would be reduced by half - lifting 420 million people out of poverty, two-thirds in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Educating girls is also ranked one of the most powerful solutions to tackling the climate crisis. Governments have already committed to provide free primary and secondary education in the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as quality pre-primary education. And now the call to cement these targets in binding law is gaining momentum.

The full text of the letter and list of signers can be found here. Signatories include Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Malala Yousafzai and Jody Williams; Founder of the Rise Up Climate Movement Vanessa Nakate; UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutter; Member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child member Moushira Khattab; Syrian disability and refugee rights advocate, and author Nujeen Mustafa; Founder and Executive Director of LEARN Afghanistan, Pashtana Durrani; MEP and Vice-Chair of the Culture, Education, Youth, Media and Sports Committee Victor Negrescu.

Co-founder of the Malala Fund Malala Yousafzai said:  [i"Current global crises could set progress for girls’ education back decades. If leaders aim to secure a more equal future for girls, they must take action to strengthen global protections for education. We need governments to improve national education policies and resource them"[/i]

Rise Up Climate Movement Founder Vanessa Nakate said:  “More than 120 million girls shockingly aren’t in school. They’re more likely to be forced into child marriage, face violence, and are more vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change. This is why I’m joining Nobel Peace Prize Laureates like Malala Yousafazai to help get all kids in school: calling on world leaders to back a new global treaty to expand children’s right to free education. If world leaders don’t expand the right to free education now, not only will we fail in defeating the education crisis, but we will lose the fight against climate change and other global injustices holding girls back.”

UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutter, said: “Access to education has an essential role to play to break the cycles that perpetuate poverty from one generation to the next – but only if it reaches early childhood and equips children to become active economic agents and engaged citizens. This requires expanding the right to education further.”

Nujeen Mustafa, Syrian disability and refugee rights advocate:  “When I think about access to education, I think about my own story, and the impact on my life from not being able to go to school until I was 17. Access to education should never depend on luck, where we’re born, or if we’re rich enough to pay for school. All kids deserve to be given the chance to reach their full potential and pursue their dreams. Leaders always talk about the importance of the next generation: Free education gives children the freedom and the tools they need to face big challenges ahead.”

Campaign Director at Avaaz Sarah Morrison said:  “The pandemic caused the biggest disruption to education in history. The last time this happened - during WWII - the United Nations was formed and the right to education was enshrined in international law. Now, with governments wildly off track to get all kids in school by 2030, we need to expand the right to education - from pre-primary through secondary school. And make sure international law is fit for purpose in the 21st Century.”

A new global treaty could be adopted via an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that explicitly guarantees the right to free secondary education and at least one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education. This would ensure commitments were legally binding, have independent monitoring mechanisms, and extend beyond 2030. The UN summit offers a critical opportunity for world leaders to back this call and kickstart the process for updating international law.

Many countries have successfully scaled up pre-primary and secondary education. Nepal increased its pre-primary enrollment from 12% in 2000 to 86% in 2017. And, in Vietnam, enrollment of 3 to 5-year-olds increased from 39% to 65% between 1999 and 2007. Studies in the US, Egypt, and Turkey have found that for every US$1 invested in early childhood education US$2.3 to US$6 is yielded in benefits. 

On the first day of  the summit . September 16, 2022, Avaaz is set to deliver the letter in-person to the UN Secretary-General. 

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