International Day of Education celebrated on January 24 is an annual international observance day and is dedicated to education.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming January 24 as International Day of Education on December 3, 2018, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.
The UN states that the theme “highlights the integrated nature of education, its humanistic aims, as well as its centrality to our collective development ambitions. It also gives stakeholders and partners the flexibility to tailor the celebration for diverse audiences, a variety of contexts and for priority themes”.
Speaking about International Day of Education, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “We must do far more to advance Sustainable Development Goal 4, to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility. Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind.
International Day of Education 2020: Theme
International Day of Education 2020 will be celebrated worldwide around the theme of “Learning for people, planet, prosperity and peace”, including two key celebrations @UNESCO HQ in Paris and UN HQ in New York.
International Day of Education 2020: Significance
The 2020 celebration will position education and the learning it enables as humanity’s greatest renewable resource and reaffirms the role of education as a fundamental right and a public good. It will celebrate the many ways learning can empower people, preserve the planet, build shared prosperity and foster peace.
This is the best investment that one can make to ensure a sustainable future and leave no one behind.
But still, millions are still deprived of education each day, because of social, cultural and economic factors.
According to the official site of UNESCO, 265 million children and youth still do not attend school and around 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic maths. Less than 40 per cent of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school.
