Almost everyone agrees that education is key to a country’s success. Yet too many countries are still failing on the education front — a problem that predates the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced millions of children out of school.
It’s going to take a strong collective push to tackle this global crisis, says Leonardo Garnier, special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general for the Transforming Education Summit, which will take place on the sidelines of the 77th U.N. General Assembly in September.
The summit aims to mobilize political willpower to help nations recover from pandemic-related learning losses, reimagine the future of education, and revitalize efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4: investing in education to help millions move up the socioeconomic ladder.
It’s an investment that has the highest rate of return for a country’s prosperity, but one that’s too often shortchanged, Garnier said in a candid talk with Raj Kumar, president and editor-in-chief of Devex.
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“When you realize the amount of future income we are renouncing for not investing in education today, that’s really stupid,” said Garnier, a lecturer at the University of Costa Rica, where he previously served as the country’s minister for planning and economic policy in addition to two terms as education minister.
Why the lack of investment? The reasons are multifaceted, but some of it comes down to self-interest.
In low- and middle-income countries, “when you say let’s increase taxes in order to finance education, you’re talking about putting taxes on the upper half to finance the education of the lower half, and that’s politically very difficult,” Garnier said. “We are very selfish.”
He said it’s up to the lower half to “get mad, get angry” and demand the right to an education, which will not only benefit their children, but their country in the long term.
Watch Garnier’s full interview as he offers a frank assessment of why education funding is falling short and why — despite the cynicism over U.N. summits being little more than talk shops — this summit could be “a tipping point.”
About the author
Raj Kumarraj_devex
Raj Kumar is the President and Editor-in-Chief at Devex, the media platform for the global development community. He is a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His work has led him to more than 50 countries, where he has had the honor to meet many of the aid workers and development professionals who make up the Devex community. He is the author of the book "The Business of Changing the World," a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry.