Malawi leader Mutharika tells UN education is a humanitarian cause
Malawian President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika Wednesday morning joined a high level delegation at the UN General Assembly in discussing the alarming education crisis that has left close to 264 million children and adolescents out of school.
Mutharika, together with leaders from of Norway, France, Senegal co-hosted the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) event focused on Sustainable Development Goal Four on quality education with the theme “Financing the Future: Education 2030.”
During his statement, President Mutharika stressed on the importance of education to human existence and the planet we live in.
“Our ability to improve the living conditions of mankind depends on the quality of decisions we make. These decisions and choices also depend on the access and quality of education given to individuals,” Mutharika said.
He added that the ability to protect the planet we live in also depends on our ability to understand contemporary complexities and fragilities of human existence.
The Malawi leader pointed out that the prevailing global mindset of taking education as a service to the people than an investment and humanitarian cause has done little in uplifting education standards in many parts of the world.
“We left the funding of education to individual countries as their responsibility to provide services to their people. We need to take the education of all children of the world as a common responsibility of our global community,” Mutharika said.
He expressed hope that the GPE will change the current situation for the better because its progress shows that the “dream to educate all children is possible.”
Mutharika then called upon all partners to support replenishment efforts for GPE in ensuring that access to education reach as many children as possible.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, French President Emmanuel Macron and Senegalese President Macky Sall also delivered their statements on GPE.
The meeting, which was chaired by UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, also showcased success stories of country-led initiatives with increased domestic resource mobilization towards education.
The UN Secretary General António Guterres and his deputy Amina Muhammad were also part of the high level delegation that attended the meeting.
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