Tomorrow, we join governments round the world, including the Philippine government, and others in drawing attention once more to International Youth Day, observed annually since the first in 2000.
We will see and experience in the local scene concerts, workshops, cultural events as well as meetings involving national and local government officials, with youth organizations expectedly participating.
Through these activities, hopes are high the day would be able, properly, to put in sharper focus the difficulties the young people are facing today. Themed “Transforming Education,” we join the cogwheels of this event in highlighting efforts to make education more inclusive and accessible for all youth, including efforts by the youth themselves.
Implanted in Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”—International Youth Day 2019 will examine how governments, young people and youth-led as well as youth-focused organizations and other stakeholders, are transforming education so that this becomes an Herculean tool to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We agree with advocates that inclusive and accessible education is a matter of life and death to achieving sustainable development and can play a critical role in preventing conflict.
It is an axiom that education is a “development multiplier” as it plays an epoch-making role in accelerating progress across all the Sustainable Development Goals set forth by the United Nations: poverty eradication, good health, gender equality, decent work and growth, reduced inequalities, action on climate or peaceful societies.
We cannot disagree with the argument that education should lead to pertinent and effective learning outcomes, with the content of school curricula being appropriate for purpose, not only for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the future of work, but also for the opportunities and challenges that rapidly changing social contexts bring.
We note the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for populations around the world. To date, those who have gained the most from it have been consumers able to afford and access the digital world; technology has made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives.
Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, or playing a game—any of these can now be done remotely.
Tomorrow’s manifesto is today’s.
