Unlock Education for Everyone

Education is a universal human right. It is the key to a positive future for individual children, whole communities and the wider world. That’s why, back in 2015, world leaders committed to the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving quality education for all by 2030. However, despite this global commitment, millions of children remain locked out of the classroom simply because of who they are and where they live.

Access to education and learning is not a level playing field. Children experience unfair treatment for many reasons – including having a disability, being a girl in a place where gender discrimination is rife, living in a rural area, experiencing poverty or being caught up in an emergency. As a result of these overlapping and reinforcing issues, many children can experience multiple barriers to education at the same time – which further increases and reinforces their level of exclusion. Furthermore, these inequalities can impact a child early on in their life, so many marginalised children start their first day of school significantly behind their peers.

However, 2019 is a crucial year in the journey towards unlocking education for all children. This year a number of countries, including the UK for the very first time, will be participating in a ‘Voluntary National Review’ of their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This will allow the UK to assess the progress it’s made towards achieving quality education for all, as well as whether we are on track to achieve this essential goal by 2030.

This year, the Send My Friend campaign has launched with a new report, ‘Unlock Education for Everyone’, which identifies why inequality in education persists, and what needs to be done to tackle it. The report recognises numerous examples of individual children and young people whose access to education has been impacted by conflict, poverty, gender, geography, minority status and disability; amongst other reasons.

In order to deliver the pledge to leave no one behind in education, the report recommends that the UK government must lead globally by leveraging its level of global influence, work with countries, and drive for more equitable investment in education.

This year, we’ll be joining thousands of young people campaigning with Send My Friend to call on the UK government to turn their promises into action and Unlock Education for Everyone. Thousands of young people and their teachers across the UK will also be getting involved in the campaign by creating eye-catching paper keys that depict the inequalities in education across the world, adding a written message to their MP.

For more information on the campaign, take a look at the Send My Friend website and join the campaign today to Unlock Education for Everyone!