The Education International Executive Board has decided that the key priority for the organisation over the coming months should be putting quality education for all at the top of the global agenda.
The Executive Board, at its 41st meeting in Brussels last week, has adopted a comprehensive strategy for a campaign to promote quality education, publicly funded and accessible to all. The campaign will seek to engage all EI member organisations and international and national organisations, which share a commitment to quality education, in a concerted effort to place education at the heart of social and economic policy on a global and national basis.
“Education is the key to human development” said Susan Hopgood, EI President, “without quality public education for all the world’s children, economic and social development will continue to stagnate”.
The EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, outlined the contents of a detailed strategy for the campaign which will be rolled out over the coming months. Member organisations and, indeed, their individual members, will be asked to participate in a concerted effort to impact on the national and global policy makers. The formal launch of the campaign will take place on World Teachers’ Day in October, 2013. In the meanwhile every EI member organisation will be invited to participate in the campaign and to define the steps which need to be taken in their own country to ensure that quality education is available for all.
“EI will have some powerful allies in this campaign” said Fred van Leeuwen, “Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General himself, has recognised that education has to be at the heart of social and economic development.”
The Executive Board was addressed by Itai Madamombe, Global Education Advisor, Office of the UN Secretary-General, who re-iterated the UN Secretary General’s view that all other forms of development depended on education. “None of the other Millennium development Goals could be achieved without education”, she said.
Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and now UN Special Envoy for Global Education, also addressed the meeting. His message complemented the theme of the new EI campaign. He re-inforced the view that it was urgent to take action now, to achieve education for all. A more detailed report of his message is provided in a separate report.
The Executive Board was unanimous in its support for the new campaign and members committed themselves to promote it at national and regional levels. “EI will be calling on its member organisations, and all of those who care about the future of society, to join together and stand up for quality education over the coming months,” said Fred van Leeuwen, “with real commitment and concerted action we will succeed in improving the lives of future generations.”.