To celebrate the role of education for peace and development, the United Nations General Assembly on December 3, 2018, adopted a resolution declaring January 24 as ‘International Day of Education.

The proclamation of January 24 as the International Day of Education is an important step to promote education as a critical aspect of sustainable development. The UN resolution also mentioned every member states, organisations of the UN system, and civil society, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, the private sector, individuals and other relevant stakeholders to observe the International Day of Education.

According to a UNESCO statistics, 617 million children and adolescents can neither read nor perform basic calculations. Less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary education and nearly four million children and young refugees are out of school.

The adoption of the resolution ‘International Day of Education’, co-authored by Nigeria and 58 other member states, demonstrated the unwavering political will to support transformative actions for inclusive, equitable and quality education for all.

Marie Paule Roudil, Director of UNESCO New York Office, stressed that education is not only a key goal on its own in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development but the one goal that gives people the means to realise it.

“Gaining the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to out sustainable development into practice and craft innovate solutions is crucial for global goals,” she said.