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We do believe at UNESCO and I personally am very much committed to girls' education and
women's empowerment. I do believe in the first place that education is one of the best investments
in order to achieve sustainability in any development but particularly girls. Because
in many parts of the world girls are a synonym with poverty in the rural areas. Girls are
the marginalized communities in the communities. There are still a lot of stereotypes and because
poverty has sometimes a women's face. Investing in girls' education and we have a lot of data,
a lot of research in this particular area -- improves communities standard of living,
eradicates poverty, has a particularly important and positive impact on health. We know that
educated women that have passed through primary education are caring better for their children,
for their families. And also for the environment. Investing in girls' education is also one
of the main, I would say, objectives of education for all which is the second millennium development
goal.
And without achieving gender parity in primary education and also moving to the secondary
education, we cannot achieve also what nowadays is considered one of the objectives of the
international community to eradicate extreme poverty by the year 2030. And why we speak
now about girls' education? Because still in equalities are there. Only 58 percent of
the countries have achieved gender parity in primary education and only 38 percent gender
parity in secondary education. When girls are in school and our appeal is let's keep
girls in school. They marry late, they get pregnant late. When they're in school they're
much more protected, you know, if not to get contaminated with some diseases. And they're
less also protected -- I would say protected against violence. Keeping girls in school
after primary education is the best investment in our development. Well I believe that in
terms of education it's a value in any society. Education is, I would say also a cultural
event in many societies. Although we know that stereotypes sometimes put girls in marginalized
also populations in disadvantage. We believe that if we unite around education, religious
leaders traditionally there is in many communities. Of course having a very focused public policies
and government commitments and make an education a true value for families. We will then achieve
also sustainability in all our development efforts. We don't believe that there is juxtaposition
between cultural values and educational values. We do believe that if we put it right, if
we unite around this idea of education being one of the best investment for having healthy
families, for having healthy communities, for having also I would say a better living.
Education is a better living also for these communities and these families then we can
convince also everybody and unite around achieving this important goal of access to quality education
and lifelong learning for all. I think the strategy to get children into school on one
side -- and we have already done it. It is to put education on the global political agenda.
In the United Nations and we have now the education first initiative of the secretary
general, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who is the first one to put education with such a commitment
and such a responsibility on the agenda of the United Nations. We have to have in the
post 2015 agenda on sustainable development, we have to have a one very strong goal, sustainable
goal, which is achieving free access to quality education and lifelong learning for all. And
then, of course, we have to have a very strong commitment of governments, of the civil society,
of the private sector also to reach the marginalized. We cannot continue business as usual because
if we want to eradicate extreme poverty, if we have to move with the agenda of sustainability,
if we want to tackle the problems of climate change, if we want also to in some cases also
achieve the paradigm of development to it I would say a developmental aspect to all
the issues about economic development, to have the three legs of sustainable development,
the economic, the social and the environmental. We cannot do that separately from education.
So I believe if we integrate education in these strategies of sustainable development
then we will be successful.
I think the teaching and learning is shifting. Nowadays we speak not just about education.
We're speaking about learning. And this shift in our thinking about learning is very much
linked also to the new technologies. It's very much linked to a new, a very different
environment that we're living through where there is a broad access to information through
the new communication technologies which gives a lot of opportunity also for high quality
of teaching and of learning. So on one side we have to breach the digital divide. This
is the question about access to online information. It is about broadband. We're working there
through the Broadband Commission in order to promote broadband and connectivity in those
parts of the world where still we see this digital divide which is preventing many communities
and people and young people and others from this access. On the other side we have to
admit that the new technology, the technologies overall it's not the name in itself. It is
a means to achieving this learning. And it is about also the content.
It is about what kind of global citizens we want to create nowadays through the process
of schooling and learning. And this is about values. This is about understanding about
the others. This is about I would say what kind of young people come out of schools.
We don't want to have out of schools some kind of robots. We want to have young people
who have skills but also who are culturally literate. Young people who understand about
the others. Young people who know what is at stake nowadays who are -- with values about
human rights, about human dignity, about communities and about the others. So we call it within
the global education first initiative we have put the third main objective of this initiative,
global citizenship, education for global citizenship. And I think this is a time to speak about
it. It is about education for sustainable development. We are having a major global
forum later this year in November in Nagoya in Japan which is a forum about education
for sustainable development. So the stakes are very high nowadays with all the challenges
that we have. And we want that the oldest, I would say, global learning and education
is about global citizenship and that young people know what is at stake.