Education International stressed the importance of sustainable education funding this week in New York as the 72nd United Nations General Assembly placed the issue at the top of its priorities.
Education International (EI) President Susan Hopgood and Deputy General Secretary David Edwards were at the UN General Assembly where they represented the world’s teachers. On the docket was nothing less than the future of education financing for the worlds 120 million students who are deprived of a free, inclusive and quality education. President Hopgood participated in a series of meetings and events where she advocated for greater investment and prioritisation, cautioned against short-sightedness and condemned governments that outsource their responsibility to for profit companies.
On the morning of September 20 she was present with Malala Yousafzai, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron and other dignitaries at an event to gather pledges to fill the global financing gap. President Hopgood welcomed the news that France and Senegal would co-host the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)'s replenishment conference in February 2018 and the ambition of the funding target. Hopgood pledged EI’s commitment to uphold its part of the bargain if the donors rise to the challenge to increase their funding.
That same afternoon, EI joined forces with the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and the Global Alliance for Tax Justice to co-convene a meeting to discuss strategies for domestic resource mobilisation. In her opening address to over a hundred participants from civil society and government she pointed out that 10 percent of global GDP is hidden in off-shore havens and that quality public education requires predictable and sustainable long term investment.
“We see how essential our schools are to the public good. To our towns, cities, and countries, they are the source of our collective values. They are the engines of our democratic principles,” said Hopgood. “Now is the time that we must double down, reinvest both our efforts and our financial resources into making public education the first and strongest option for our children and for our societies.”
Her remarks were echoed by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, ActionAid's David Archer, GPE CEO Alice Albright, and Jeffrey Sachs among others to make the case for concerted and unrelenting pressure to ensure a quality education for all.
Please find Hopgood's full remarks here.