International Education Day

The International Education Day is celebrated annually on 24 January and it aims to showcase the changes that have to take place in order to realise everyone’s right to education and build a more sustainable, inclusive, and peaceful futures. This day is intended for the international community to also recognise that education is essential for the success of all 17 of its goals. Sustainable Development Goal 4, in particular, aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.
Education is a human right, a public good, and a public responsibility. It plays a very crucial role in developing the creative thinking ability of young people and providing all the necessary skills and knowledge that are required to shape a competitive and productive individual. The UNESCO’s global Futures of Education Report stated that transforming the future requires an urgent rebalancing or our relationships with each other, with nature as well as with technology that permeates our lives, bearing breakthrough opportunities while raising serious concerns for equity, inclusion and democratic participation.
Education offers children and youth a ladder out of poverty and a path to a promising future. Hence, the theme of the International Day of Education is ‘Changing Course, Transforming Education and it will be a platform to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realise everyone’s fundamental right to education. It will generate debate around how to strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, how to steer the digital transformation, support teachers, safeguard the planet and unlock the potential in every person to contribute to collective wellbeing and our shared home.
We, at the World Assembly of Youth (WAY), will continue to ensure that all youth acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development and address other youth issues. At the same time, we intent to ensure that all youth both men and women achieve literacy and numeracy. Hence, WAY is calling on its member organisations to increase strategic policies commitment to education, as a force for inclusion driving the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals. WAY has various platforms that brings young people together of different age, race, background, and ethic group, to interact and share ideas. It also strives to develop the youth by exposing them to an environment in which they get to realise their full potential and explore their untapped capabilities. Through such platforms, youth shall gain knowledge and share that among their peers, while engaging in the decision making process.
As the world marks the International Education Day, WAY calls on governments and all stakeholders that is time for change and transformation, we need to make universal quality education a leading priority.