International Day of Education
Today, the 24th January, is UNESCO’s International Day of Education, which will be marked globally tomorrow with various events. This year’s theme is Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation’.
“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.
Today, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable.” (UNESCO).
Education, a basic human right, continues to be denied to many across the world, and here in Australia, though we see progress in some areas, we continue to see glaring problems where the education system fails to adequately meet the needs of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and students across the country.
Last year, the Federal Government unveiled the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, under which there were two specific targets relating to early childhood and school education.
They were:
to increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in early childhood education to 95% by 2025.
to increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all five domains (physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills and general knowledge) of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) to 55% by 2031.
These targets highlight the fact that evidence clearly shows “quality early childhood education and care is one of the most effective ways to remediate disadvantage.” (Graham, Nutton & Yaofeng He 2020). In order to address educational gaps in the later years, we must first be ensuring that all children are receiving high quality early childhood education in these first five years.
To do this, we must address the lack of access to quality preschools in remote communities, but also address the inclusiveness of preschools across the whole country, in urban, rural and remote areas. While attendance is one thing, effective engagement of children and their families requires creation of culturally safe places where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, their families, elders and communities, are welcomed and valued. Curriculum content should actively include Indigenous perspectives, fostering a learning environment where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children feel strong in that their culture is respected, celebrated and valued, all which helps in contributing towards positive educational outcomes for our children.
This year’s Day of Education theme states that “Now is the time to power education by stepping up collaboration and international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the centre of the recovery”. We can embrace this theme in Australia by making now the time to open up new doors of collaboration with our First Nations communities to work together to create places of education which not only meet the needs of all students, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, but actually facilitates the achievement of educational excellence for all.
