Struggle for a more hopeful future will be won or lost in today’s classrooms

Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in education remains as good an investment as a country can make, agreed Commonwealth education ministers at the launch in Kuala Lumpur this morning (16 June 2009) of their 17th triennial conference (17CCEM) since the first in Oxford exactly 50 years ago.

Some 700 delegates – comprising ministers and senior officials, as well as four ‘parallel’ groups of Commonwealth teachers, young people, university vice-chancellors, and ‘stakeholders’ from business and civil society – are gathered in Malaysia, and addressing the theme: ‘Towards and Beyond Education Goals and Targets’.

In his opening address, Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Mohd. Najib Tun Abdul Razak said the struggle for a more hopeful future for generations to come would ultimately be won or lost in the classrooms of today.

He added that the conference theme is a timely reminder of commitments made under the Millennium Development Goals to improve education, as well as those of the Education for All targets, also by 2015.

“With more than half of the world’s 115 million children without an education residing in the Commonwealth, we must endeavour with an ever greater sense of urgency and commitment to ensure that these goals are realised,” he said.

The Malaysian Prime Minister highlighted his government’s commitment to provide equal access to quality education for all Malaysians, regardless of their economic and regional background. He said: “Malaysia is in the midst of formulating a new economic model that will lift the country into the ranks of a high-income nation within the decade. However, I realise that it will require a major and comprehensive policy overhaul in all fields. This national endeavour will be in nought if the Malaysian education system fails to produce human capital that can meet the challenges of the 21st century innovation economy.”

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith emphasised that education is the key to peace and democratic stability, to jobs and economic growth, to good health, and to respect and harmony.

“Education is not just a development goal – it is the foundation of society, and a fundamental human right,” he said.

Mr Smith set down the scale of the challenge: “It is clear that – however much progress we have made – at least one-third of our Commonwealth countries have not yet achieved universal primary education, nor achieved equal numbers of boys and girls in both primary and secondary education.” He then looked beyond the Goals – asking ministers to see the continuity between primary, secondary and tertiary education, the importance of vocational training and skills as well as education, and the central and transformative role that education can play in instilling national values of equality of opportunity.

He called upon the 17CCEM to send strong messages to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in November this year, about the reinforced importance of education in times of downturn, and about the centrality of young people as the inheritors of the 21st century.

Prime Minister Nahas Angula of Namibia gave the keynote address to the conference. “People’s needs should determine the education and training programmes of the Commonwealth, and not the other way round,” he said. He spoke of the uncertainty of young people in today’s society, and analysed the different perspectives around educating young people, both boys and girls.

Mr Angula spoke of his Namibian perspective, where a comparatively high percentage of the annual budget spent on education (25 per cent) can still achieve better outcomes. He made proposals for a special Commonwealth conference on youth skills development, more Commonwealth co-operation in school leadership training, and deeper higher education institutional linkages.

Click here for Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith’s speech

Keynote address by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia