About the 2022 UN Transforming Education Summit
Education today is in turmoil. More than 90 % of the world’s children have had their education interrupted by COVID-19 — the largest disruption of education systems in history. For many students, especially girls and young women, this break may become permanent, with potential consequences for their future and for future generations that follow. The pandemic has also exposed large disparities not only between countries, but particularly between different learner groups within countries.
The Transforming Education Summit was convened in response to a global crisis in education – one of equity and inclusion, quality and relevance. Often slow and unseen, this crisis is having a devastating impact on the futures of children and youth worldwide.
The Transforming Education Summit is a key initiative of Our Common Agenda launched by UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in September 2021. The Summit took place during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly and was convened by the Secretary-General with a view to elevating education to the top of the global political agenda and to mobilize action, ambition, solidarity and solutions to recover pandemic-related learning losses and sow the seeds to transform education in a rapidly changing world.
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Education systems need to adapt to the shifting skills needed professionally, making learning more student-centered, connected, dynamic, inclusive and collaborative, allowing creativity to blossom. Learning resources must evolve to reflect these transformations in how teaching and learning occur.
It is necessary to develop alternatives for those left behind or out of the conventional educational system, so that they can build essential skills for life and can pursue upskilling and reskilling opportunities for lifelong learning. In the context of a global climate crisis, rapid technological transformation, profound changes in the world of work, lower levels of trust in public institutions, the erosion of democratic values and the rise of disinformation, intolerance and hate speech, current systems of learning are failing children, young people and learners of all ages.
Why do we need to transform education?
Education is a human right.
We must transform education so that, wherever they are, no girl, boy, young or not so young person is deprived of their right to a quality education. No exclusion is acceptable.
Schools must be inclusive, safe and healthy.
Schools should not exclude anybody, they should accept every girl, boy, or young person, and make them feel welcome, cared for, protected, stimulated, and supported.
Foundational learning is critical.
A good education develops each student´s capacity for learning the fundamental building blocks of knowledge: literacy, numeracy, and basic scientific thinking. It also includes basic socio-emotional skills.
Learning is life-long.
A good education also enhances the life-long capacity to learn and re-learn necessary skills for the rapidly changing world of work.
Education must promote sustainable development.
Crucially, a good education develops every person´s values and the capacity to live together in peace; to respect and appreciate human diversity, gender equality, and human rights; and to exercise an active commitment to sustainable development.
Teaching must be transformed.
Teachers need the conditions, the wages, the resources, the autonomy and the respect they deserve in order to be able to transform education.
The digital revolution is key to transformation.
If properly harnessed, connectivity and openly accessible digital teaching and learning resources can contribute to the transformation and democratization of education.
Education requires public investment.
The public financing of education is the most efficient and socially responsible investment countries can make. Every dollar invested in education yields a higher return for individuals and even more so for society than any other investment.
Achieving SDG 4 on Quality Education
Adopted in 2015 as an integral aspect of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and it set of 17 transformative goals, Goal 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Progress on Goal 4 is guided by ten specific targets that focus on a wide variety of education issues, including equity and access, skills development, universal literacy and numeracy, facilities, teachers, and financing. In spite of progress made over the past decades, the international community is falling behind on its commitments. Indeed, the world is experiencing a deepening global education crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left hundreds of millions of children and young people deprived of their right to quality education.
There is an urgent need to recover learning losses, reignite international political and financial commitment to education as a global public good and to accelerate progress towards realizing SDG 4. But there is an equally urgent need for collective reflection on how education systems can evolve to accompany and support the transformation of societies by 2030.
Leadership
UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed
Amina J. Mohammed is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. She is overseeing the Summit preparations.
Leonardo Garnier, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General for the Transforming Education Summit
As Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for the Transforming Education Summit, Leonardo Garnier provides strategic advice on issues of transforming education and works under the leadership of the Deputy Secretary-General/Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. He liaises closely with the Summit Secretariat to build momentum in advance of the Summit. He also support the Secretary-General in consulting Governments and engaging stakeholders with a view to shaping concrete and ambitious deliverables to be presented at the Summit.
Mr. Garnier is a lecturer at the University of Costa Rica, where he has worked in the School of Economics and as a researcher at the Institute of Economic Science Research. He served as Costa Rica’s Minister for Planning and Economic Policy from 1994 to 1998, in addition to two terms as Minister for Education, from 2006 to 2014, during which time he advanced significant reforms of the education sector, both with respect to foundational skills like literacy, mathematics and science, and from the perspective of introducing an “ethics, aesthetics and citizenship” vision of education. He achieved a significant increase in the rate of enrolment, with important investments in rural and indigenous education.
Support
The Transforming Education Summit was supported by the European Commission, as well as Dubai Cares, the Lego Foundation, and Qatar Fund.