Culmination Event of Education for All Global Action Week, 2013 “Every Child Needs a Teacher” 

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Venue: Multi-Purpose Hall, Kamla Devi Block, India International Center,

Lodhi Estate, New Delhi

Education for All - Global Action Week happens every year – it’s a moment when children, teachers, parents and the like-minded people around the world unite in their demands for education.

UNESCO New Delhi, UNIC, CARE India and National Coalition for Education (NCE), the national country representative of Global Campaign for Education’s (GCE) organized several national level campaign activities during the Education for All - Global Action Week, 2013.

This year the Education for All Global action week is being held from 21st to 27th of April, 2013 and has set the theme “Every Child needs a Teacher”. The campaign every year seeks the opportunity to highlight one area of the Education for All goal and make targeted efforts to achieve change on the ground, with the added support of education campaigners and millions of members of the public worldwide joining together for the same cause. 

The culmination event on "Education for All, Global Action Week 2013" was co-organized by UNESCO New Delhi and national Coalition for Education (NCE) in New Delhi on 25 April 2013.

The participants and speakers in the culmination event will be representatives from schools, student community, parent teacher association representatives, teacher unions, parliamentarians, academicians, international NGOs and INGOs, and print and visual media representatives. Some of the main media houses who covered the event were All India radio, BBC world, News Express, Governance Now, Aapka Faisala, Hinduastan.

The chief speakers at this occasion were following

1.      A.V.Swamy- Member of parliament Keynote Speaker

2.      Rampal Singh- General Secretary, NCE (welcome Address)

3.      Shigeru Aoyagi- Director UNESCO

4.      Kiran Mehra- Director of UNIC

5.      R.C.Dabas- Akhil Delhi prarthamik delhi sangh, president

In his welcome address Mr. Rampal Singh, General Secretary of NCE, said that The GAW platform provides us an opportunity to negotiate our demands for education to policy makers. In a country where 12 lakh teachers are lacking, it is difficult to imagine a strong and educated nation.almost 7 lakh para teachers are appointed for educating children. If we wish to have an educated nation then appointment of full time & trained teachers is vital. The central & state governments are responsible for education of the people but it is a sorry state of affair that both the governments indulge in blame game , we cannot fulfil the goal of education through private & corporate educational institutes. National Coalition for Education along with its partner organisation will strive to make ‘Every Child needs a Teacher’ campaign successful.

Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi, Director UNESCO New Delhi, said that  We will deliberate on the importance of the teachers, why teachers are importance & what are the challenges we are facing? Without qualified teachers for everybody education for all cannot be achieved. The right to education act was launched in 2009 and the first deadline of RTE was last month. Challenges- we face school dropouts, 8.1 million children do not have access to knowledge & information. UNESCO is worried about absenteesm among teachers is a grave problem amounting to 25%. The quality of the teachers is also a huge problem.

A.V.Swamy, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha in his keynote speech said that  Every human being is a storehouse of knowledge and the knowledge comes out through an environment of enquiry, this spirit of enquiry has to be encouraged by teachers. I am fortunate to be a member of the delegation of Millennium Development Goals, I was associated with NCERT, I was once a teacher teaching up to 5^th grade. It is necessary to ignite the spirit of enquiry within the student without ever telling the child that she does not have the potential to understand. The government has failed in providing education for all. I assure you that as a parliamentarian I will do all that is in my power to fulfil the demands presented by you.

Ms Kiran Mehra Kripplman, Director UNIC said that Education is a basic fundamental right and not the privilege of a few. Education is the single best investment that nations can make for developed, healthy and equitable societies. Not just education but quality education is the right of every child. Gender, geography, poverty and accessibility should not prevent any child from getting education. This year’s theme of ‘every child needs a teacher’ calls for a review of quality and quantity of education, review of the GAW movement. It is important to mobilize political commitment and funding for education. UNESCO goals for education:

1)     Every child in school

2)     Improve quality of education

3)     Foster global citizenship

At last Mr. Rampal Singh thanked all the participants of Culmination event of EFA Global Action Week 2013.