NEWS: World leaders call for urgent action to address global education emergency

Parliamentarians attending IPNEd’s founding meeting on Monday 14th September 2020.

The health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has also created an unprecedented education emergency that presents the greatest threat to education in a lifetime, world leaders, including former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, have warned MPs today.

Covid-19 has disrupted the education of over 90% of the world’s children and youth and risks reversing decades of progress in education. 

As most countries begin to re-open their educational institutions this month, millions of children are at risk of never returning to school. “We expect 30 million children may not go back to school, we are fearful that they will be involved in child labour, or they’ll be subjected to child marriage or child trafficking”, Mr Brown told MPs today.

Setting out the scale of the global crisis in access to quality education, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, who is the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, said to MPs: “That means there will be 300 million children who will not go to school, today or any day. It also means that about a billion children will not be able to read or write by the age of 10 or 11”. 

With progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4, which sets the global objective of ensuring ‘inclusive and equitable quality education for all’ by 2030, at risk of going into free fall, more than 100 MPs have today joined together to call for renewed political commitment and leadership to get children’s learning back on track.

At this critical time for education the first global parliamentary network for education launched today with 123 parliamentarians from 30 parliaments who have become founding members of the International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd).

IPNEd is a new initiative aiming to strengthen links between parliamentarians around the world in support of SDG 4 to accelerate quality education for all.

At the Network’s virtual founding meeting today, parliaments from across six continents, came together to discuss the global education challenge and agree on how parliamentarians can work together to get children’s learning back on track.

© UNHCR/Sylvain Cherkaoui

The Network has been launched by former UK Minister for Africa and Minister for International Development, Harriett Baldwin MP, and Senator Dr Gertrude Musuruve Inimah, the nominated Senator representing Persons with Disabilities in the Kenyan Senate. The two parliamentarians are Co-Chairs of IPNEd.

Harriett Baldwin MP, Co-Chair of IPNEd, who also chaired proceedings commented: 

“IPNEd has been established to grow and deepen political understanding of and commitment to inclusive and equitable quality education for all.  Today marks the first formal step in that process”.

During the meeting, the parliamentarians were also joined by key stakeholders and political leaders from the education sector.

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, and Minister Serigne Mbaye Thiam, Former Minister of National Education, Senegal & Vice-Chair, Global Partnership for Education, both welcomed the launch of the Network.

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown highlighted the importance of IPNEd in achieving SDG 4: 

“This new parliamentary network can pressurise all the educational institutions of the world, national governments and international organisations, to make the dream of education for all, the reality.”

Minister Thiam also warmly welcomed the new initiative, recognising the progress that can be achieved when parliamentarians work together:

“This Network launches at a critical time as we battle the impact of Covid. Parliamentarians' influence cannot be understated. The political momentum parliamentarians create challenges legislation, increases budgets and drives equity and quality in education”. 

The parliamentarians, representing almost 30 parliaments across six continents, also heard contributions from the leaders of the world’s two global funds for education. 

Both Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait, and Alice Albright, Global Partnership for Education, spoke about the importance of political engagement and leadership by parliamentarians to ensure the right to a quality education for every child.

Yasmine Sherif highlighted the key role parliamentarians can play in inspiring political commitment for education:

“Parliamentarians have an enormous leverage to guide and inspire elected leaders to shoulder their responsibilities at global level. The right to education is a human right for every child and youth enduring conflicts and forced displacement. 

“We need parliamentarians to join our call for ethical leadership in handling the biggest challenge of the world: the global education crisis and the extreme education divide suffered by those left furthest behind: the 75 million school-aged children, of whom 39 million are girls, in the most difficult circumstance on the globe.” 

Alice Albright also recognised the contribution the Network can make in increasing the financing, equity and quality of education globally:

“IPNEd can play an important role in building the political will to boost domestic resources for education and increase international support. This work is critical to transforming education systems and providing quality education for every child.”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education worldwide featured heavily in the discussions. The pandemic has disrupted the education of over 90% of the world’s children and MPs were in unanimous agreement on the importance of placing investment in education at the centre of the global COVID-19 recovery effort. 

Sameena, 6, reading with her teacher in front of class 2 at the Nasir Ghari government primary school , Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
© Asad Zaidi/Save the Children

IPNEd Co-Chair, Senator Dr Musuruve stressed how the unprecedented disruption caused by the pandemic has made the work of the Network as a facilitator of parliamentarians even more pressing:

“The COVID-19 emergency has given new urgency to our mission. We cannot understate the scale of the challenge we face globally. That’s why it is more important than ever for us as parliamentarians to now come together to ensure that no child is left behind”. 

MPs also emphasised their concerns about the impact that schools closures have had on the most marginalised children, who are most at risk of losing out on learning and never returning to school, and the need for a coordinated response by parliamentarians.

Senator Dr Musuruve, an education and disability-rights advocate, stressed the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on children with disabilities:

 “One third of all children who are out of school have a disability. Yet we all know that education lights every stage of the journey to a better life.

Marginalisation of the most vulnerable children in the society has intensified in the wake of COVID-19.If we are to ensure that no child is left behind the needs of the most marginalised children must be addressed systematically in education systems.”

Contributions from parliamentarians during the meeting represented the breadth of the Network’s membership, which includes current and former ministers of education, chairpersons of parliamentary committees and educationalists.

The Network seeks to facilitate the collaboration of parliamentarians across traditional political and geographical divides, and is open to any parliamentarian who is committed to inclusive and equitable quality education. 

Harriett Baldwin MP added: “There is much that unites us, including a belief in the power of education and its importance to the lives of children, which can help us forge a consensus to deliver more and better educational opportunities.”

Bringing the meeting to a close, Senator Dr Musuruve urged parliamentarians to redouble their collective efforts in response to the pandemic : “Coming together as groups of committed parliamentarians we can help ensure education receives the priority it deserves and get the world back on track to SDG 4.”

Parliamentarians become members of the Network by signing IPNEd’s Declaration. Parliamentarians who are interested in joining the Network are encouraged to visit www.ipned.org.

To view the recording of the founding meeting, please click here.