Education is the key to overcome 'social pandemics': Sheikha Moza

Education is the key to overcome several social pandemics, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, said at a plenary session at WISE Summit 2021 on Thursday."I believe that education is the antidote for all our social pandemics, such as intolerance, inequality, you name it. If we understand the capability of education, I think we can achieve a lot,” she stated. "Though the Covid-19 pandemic has increased disproportionate burden on the disadvantaged children, I am really optimistic when we come together, we can achieve a lot. In the last one and a half years, we have seen the impact of a pandemic. But we have managed it and we are able to develop a vaccine, an antidote to the virus."In her interaction at the session on " Educate A Child - Zero Out of School Children", Sheikha Moza touched on the EAA Foundation's "zero" strategy, which aims to reduce the percentage of out-of-school children in several countries, stressing the need for all sectors to co-operate to achieve the goal of universal primary education.The EAA Foundation chairperson noted that universal primary education is just as important as "water is important to the body." “When I say education, I mean quality education. There is always a link between quality education and economic growth because it builds the skills and increases the productivity. It will be reflected in the GDP. Education is an enabler to uphold socio economic mobility,” highlighted Sheika Moza. “Education is the birth right for each child and it is also a way we can instill identities, culture and heritage in the young people. To me, education is a medium by which culture and heritage can be passed down to the young people. So we are building identity and confidence in their hearts and minds,” she explained. Highlighting the discussions at the summit, Sheikha Moza recalled that she had heard amazing ideas and thoughts. “For me, education is the basic need such as water, food and other things. Education is central for everything and if we have educated children, it means that we have educated the nation and a productive economy. And with this we can solve economic, social and cultural issues,” she maintained. As for the selection of countries for the Zero Out of School Children programme the EAA Foundation chairperson pointed out that it was done according to “their achievements and willingness to achieve this goal.” “The countries also need to have some good data for us to plan and measure the outcomes. These countries are like a showcase that can be replicated in other countries. We have presently four countries: Zanzibar, Djibouti, Rwanda and Gambia,” she said.The session was also attended by director-general of Unesco Audrey Azoulay, and vice president of Gambia Dr Isatou Touray and moderated by Dareen Abughaida, principal presenter, Al Jazeera English. President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, also spoke virtually during the session.Azoulay remarked: "During the pandemic over 1.5bn children were impacted. There were inequalities not only between countries but within countries. Education is not the same when it is distance learning. We need the presence of teachers in the teaching learning process. Only 40% of the teachers had the training in conducting distance learning or online teaching. This was one of the major issues for countries and education in general,” "Above all, 500mn students were deprived of distance learning because they lacked internet learning. The digital divide was also widening the educational divide. Unesco created a global coalition to support global education during the pandemic. We have about 200 members in this coalition including several stakeholders and it is working in over 100 countries to protect the rights to education, supporting the reopening of the schools as early as possible,” continued Azoulay.Dr Touray noted that the EAA initiative has made a huge impact on her country enabling quality education for very young school going children.