Global citizenship education is at the heart of new global goals
In a set of roundtable sessions sponsored by the Global Business Coalition for Education and the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education, participants discussed ways to increase awareness and adoption of global citizenship education.
The issue surrounding global citizenship education is considered critical to fostering understanding and peaceful problem solving while helping to ensure holistic teaching and learning. The disucssions, which took place Sept. 29 in New York City, followed the Sustainable Development Goals Summit.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made global citizenship a pillar of his Global Education First Initiative along with quality education for all, saying, “Education is about more than literacy and numeracy – it is also about citizenry. Education must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful and tolerant societies.”
Education International (EI)’s Angelo Gavrielatos, who leads the Global Response to edu-businesses, addressed the session and praised the collaborative work to “raise the bar” for education, to focus on quality and well-rounded content. “Let's never lower the bar on education - a great teacher in a great school for every child,” he said.
Keynote speakers included former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, President and CEO of the Asia Society Josette Sheeran, Chinese writer Lulu Wang, Director of the Executive Office of the Education Sector at UNESCO's Headquarters Svein Østtveit, and A World At School co-founder Sarah Brown.
