Here's how to reboot after the Transforming Education Summit
This article was first published on Devex on 17 October 2022
This September, I joined Devex, UNICEF, and Education Cannot Wait to discuss the big ideas that came out of the Transforming Education Summit, the United Nations forum to tackle the escalating global education crisis. This year, education has been a focal point of the U.N. General Assembly for the first time. Over three days, world leaders, organizations, and young people discussed the purpose of education and the need to fund it better. We saw more than 130 nations commit to “rebooting” their education systems and the announcement of new funding mechanisms and pledges to support this commitment.
But, as Leonardo Garnier, special adviser to the summit, warned, “We are seeing a crisis of quality. … It doesn’t make sense to invest a lot of money but have people who cannot read or think creatively.”
As an implementing partner that helps governments and agencies turn ambitious commitments into programs of action, I want to share the following three reflections on translating the dialogue into quality education for every child:
- The power of teachers
- The importance of context
- The mechanics of implementation
Views from Tanzania: Minister of Education, Science and Technology
Earlier this year, we sat down with His Excellency Professor Adolf Mkenda, Minister of Education, Science and Technology for Tanzania. He talked to the importance of both context and teachers: sharing how international partners can support education development but also how “the top priority is what the local people want our education system to produce” and how “there’s no way you can talk about education reform, if you don’t talk about teachers differently”.
