Lao PDR National Consultations for the Transforming Education Summit

• Mme. Excellency, Dr. Sisouk Vongvichit, Vice Minister of Education and Sports
• Distinguished representatives of Government central and line ministries, and institutions, of National Assembly, and of educational establishments, teachers and students,
• Development partner representatives and co-chairs of the Education sector working group, 
• Mme Beate Dastel, UNICEF Representative a.i.,
• Mr. Roshan Bajracharya, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Regional Adviser

Sabadi ton soe, tuk-tuk tan,

It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to engage with you today.

Let me emphasize the criticality of your presence and engagement here today, and, if you allow me with these keynote remarks, place education in a larger context.

We are here today in response to a call from the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres to rally around a Common Agenda for rebuilding, and strengthening the foundation for development after the damage caused by COVID-19.

In response to Member States’ request for recommendations on how to move forward, in designing Our Common Agenda, the UNSG said that above all, we need an agenda of action to accelerate the implementation of existing agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

And more specifically, among the actions proposed, we are here today to think for the long term, to deliver more for young people and succeeding generations, and to be better prepared for the challenges ahead.

In this regard, Our Common Agenda includes, and I quote “recommendations for meaningful, diverse and effective youth engagement, including through better political representation and by transforming education, skills training and life-long learning”. So let us put a spotlight on education.

Globally, education is in turmoil. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated pre-existing fissures, fragilities and shortcomings in education across all countries; shortcomings that leave education systems ill-prepared to meet the demands of a world in rapid change.

The Transforming Education Summit is being convened at the UN in September 2022, in the words of the UN SG to, “renew our collective commitment to education and lifelong learning as a pre-eminent public good.”[1]

Anchored in human capital, the greatest asset of any country, and contributing to the development pathway of nations, are individuals like you and me – who, with our collective knowledge help move societies forward. This is the rationale behind why we must learn.

How we acquire that knowledge, and what knowledge we acquire – are at the core of our discussion today.

Colleagues, to this end, countries are encouraged to hold inclusive, multi-sectoral consultations to develop a shared vision and commitment at the highest level to transforming education.

Many of you are no doubt familiar with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 -- and as for Laos, 18 -- Sustainable Development Goals - or SDGs, which were adopted by world leaders in 2015. 

The greatest strength of the 2030 Agenda is universality, aligning the entire world around shared goals to eradicate poverty and hunger, protect our planet and leave no one behind.

In line with the multi-dimensional development challenges of today and the integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda, SDG 4 on Education is pivotal to all other Goals and calls for ensuring access, for all, to quality and equitable education, with lifelong learning opportunities.

In the first years following the Agenda’s adoption, progress on the education goal was slow, uneven, and insufficient, but, since the onset of the pandemic, education systems have suffered the greatest shock in recent history. Schools were shut, and lost learning has left a gap that may never be recovered and an educational crisis with exacerbated inequities including the gender divide.

Nearly 370 million children in 150 countries missed out on school meals.  Globally, close to 500 million students — three-quarters of whom came from rural areas and poor households — did not have access to remote learning programs.  And in many places, girls faced additional barriers that compound the challenge, including access to digital learning and skills, the burden of care work, and increasing the risk of early marriage and teen pregnancies.

A recent UNESCO-UNICEF-World Bank report estimates that the pandemic could cost this generation of students close to $17 trillion in missed-out lifetime earnings.[2] The World Bank estimates that the pandemic could see the number of 10-year-olds in the developing world who are unable to read a basic text increase from 20 to 70 percent, that is – from 1 in 5 to an astonishing 7 in 10.

The impact of this single statistic of the number of boys and girls unable to read – is not just about literacy.  It is about the risk of not being able to live a dignified life, to have meaningful employment, food security, and the ability to fully and sustainably support your children with education, health, and nutrition. It is about the risk of a nation’s development being deprived of future leadership by representative, innovative, and skilled thinkers and workers in the years to come. It is about human dignity, social cohesion, and inclusive and peaceful societies.

Other factors impacting on the way children are educated are equally important. Digital transformation of our societies is having a profound effect on the future of work and challenges raised by algorithms and artificial intelligence run deeper than anticipated.

As the world quickly changes, -- through climate change, technology, and population demographics such as the growing youth population, -- education must change even faster.

From a report from the UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education,[3] three tracks of change were proposed:

• First, we must re-visit and remind ourselves of why we learn.

In place of a narrow focus on education for national citizenship or to support economic growth, we need the education to build personal and collective capacities for transformation and growth. This goes to the heart of strengthening the social fabric, central to the social contract.

• Second, we must rethink what we learn.

In many schools, subject-area knowledge is parceled out to students without a framework that connects it with real-world problems and the context in which learners exist.  Instead, curricula and learning outcomes need to focus on ecological, intercultural and interdisciplinary learning.

This includes the knowledge and skills that are needed to support sustainable livelihoods and development; to advance gender equality, counter violence against women; and strengthen peace and, the knowledge and skills to appreciate and respect cultural diversity.

• Third, we must reimagine how we learn.

Education is, and must remain a public societal endeavor. We must preserve schools as places where people come together to learn from and with others.  Personal relationships between and among teachers and students are vital to learning and must be given greater value within any effective education system.

Transforming education will demand a lot from our teachers — and they will need our support. It is also clear that schools cannot be looked at in isolation.

This will require not only teachers but everyone, including caregivers, families, civil society, businesses, faith-based institutions, and communities – to play their role in the education of children. Each has something to offer; each has a role to play. However, while teaching and learning are among our most human interactions and cannot be fully automated or programmed, technology has the potential to transform the future of learning for the good.

This requires consistent and appropriate levels of development investment in the education sector, beyond books and salaries, to include technology and the training of sector staff in the use of that technology.

Technology allows for the acceleration of progress, which is essential as the change in today’s world is both certain, and fast. Technology that is safe, well-targeted and managed, and universally available is the key to sustainable development and inter-generational growth. 

These essential steps to transform education require political support and leadership.  Given that education is a keystone for individual and collective transformation and growth, domestic investment in education is essential and a prerequisite for long-term sustainable development for society as a whole. 

It also calls increasingly for a more intersectoral approach and for strengthened collaboration across ministries and among Government, key stakeholders, and development actors and partners.

Distinguished participants,

Transforming education is also about public ownership and responsibility. Each and every one of us must engage in our own process of reflection on what we see for the future of education.  We must listen to our youth who tell us that the education of the past is simply not delivering for their futures. 

We must move beyond “business as usual” and accept that change is both necessary and urgent.  This is about our own enlightenment and also more than education alone. This is about the future of our societies living peacefully within planetary boundaries.

This is why the United Nations will host the global Transforming Education Summit in September - to unite world leaders, all stakeholders, and young people around the fundamental questions of transforming education. 

This is a challenge every country needs, not just to transform education, but to transform the trajectory of national development and how countries connect.

I congratulate the Government of Lao PDR for organizing this event, as one of the first in the region, in advance of the Summit and would like to thank the Ministry of Education and Sports for leading this consultation with the support of UNICEF and UNESCO, and the Education Sector Working Group co-chairs, Australia-DFAT and the EU.

I encourage all to actively participate in the shaping of a National Commitment to Action that the Lao Government can share at the Summit in September. I also encourage the Government to hold further consultations at the highest levels and, most importantly, to ensure that commitments are turned into action once the excitement of the Summit has settled.

In closing, let me share a few words of the equal education enthusiast and former UNSG Kofi Annan, when he said that: “Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.” 

Let us seize all opportunities to create the education systems we all need to shape a more just and sustainable future that leaves no one behind.

[1] https://www.un.org/en/transforming-education-summit

[2] www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/publication/the-state-of-the-global-education-crisis-a-path-to-recovery and www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/12/06/learning-losses-from-covid-19-could-cost-this-generation-of-students-close-to-17-trillion-in-lifetime-earnings

[3] https://en.unesco.org/futuresofeducation/