RC remarks at Education Plus launch

I am delighted to join this important event to launch the Education Plus Initiative in Eswatini.

The `Education Plus’ Initiative that we are launching today is part of a high--level global political advocacy drive to accelerate actions and investments to effectively prevent HIV and empower adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, including in the beautiful Kingdom of Eswatini.

I applaud the noble vision of the Initiative: that of a world in which every young person, especially adolescent girls and young women completes primary, secondary, and tertiary education and is empowered to lead a secure, healthy, fulfilling, and productive life—free of gender discrimination, violence, and AIDS. Indeed, the initiative challenges all of us to come together, more strongly, more passionately, to push for the promise of transforming gender relations for the benefit of our society.  

I would like to thank you and your ministry, Honourable Minister, for the warm embrace, support and leadership that you have shown towards this initiative.

Similarly, I wish to applaud the Government for its commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 on quality education and gender equality, respectively. This commitment is evidenced by the commendable priority the government has accorded the education sector in terms of overall public spending and the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2010.

The government’s overarching policy goal of providing high quality, inclusive basic and senior secondary education and life-long learning opportunities to all citizens is indeed commendable. So too, is the achievement of gender parity in participation in both primary and secondary education, reflecting equality in access for boys and girls.

I also thank our five UN agencies that have come together in this initiative -- UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNESCO, UNICEF and UN Women – for this united drive to demonstrate, in practical terms, how we can achieve greater impact through working more and better together. By coming together in this initiative, the UN agencies have helped to bring into a sharp focus, the nexus between gender discrimination and violence, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS and their impacts on education.

We must remain concerned, and be spurred to urgent action, by fact that there remains too many obstacles to achieving quality education and gender equality, particularly among girls.

There are too many teenage pregnancies, and with them, too many new infections.

There are too many school drop-outs.

There is too much violence and abuse against children, and especially girls, some of them, if true as reported in our papers, reading like horror movies .

And cultural norms remain a seemingly immovable mountain against the education and life aspirations of our girls.

These are serious concerns and should keep us awake at night.

Nearly a hundred years ago, our very own African and Ghanaian educationist, James Kwegyir Aggrey, bequeathed us the ageless wisdom that, "The surest way to keep a people down is to educate the men and neglect the women. If you educate a man, you educate an individual; but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole society.” We truly must believe in and act by this wisdom for the betterment of our societies!

Eswatini has come a long way with the HIV&AIDS response and significant milestones have been achieved, including the 95-95-95 targets. We must appreciate the concerted efforts of the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, and the meaningful support of partners.

Even with the progress made, statistics still show that adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected by HIV. Out of the 4,800 new infections recorded in 2021, a total of 1,600 new infections were among adolescent girls and young women, making up more than 33% of the new infections.

Data also shows that completion of primary, secondary and tertiary education protects against HIV with drops in new HIV cases particularly among adolescent girls and young women by as much as one-third to one half in some countries.

Evidence also confirms that girls and their communities reap multiple social and economic benefits from their completion of secondary school; which include reduced vulnerability to acquiring HIV and to becoming teenage mothers, while increasing their prospects for securing jobs and higher incomes as adult women, among others.

Obviously, these benefits cannot be realised without the involvement of everyone – from the Government, development partners, civil society, private sector, community leaders, faith-based organisations, teachers and the learners themselves.

Strategic partnerships are also key in ensuring the reintegration and retention for teenage mothers as well as address issues of stigma and discrimination.

We must also act diligently and faithfully on our commitments: from the Beijing +25 process, the Africa Agenda 2063, the Maputo Protocol on African Women’s Rights and the African Union Youth Charter, among other regional agreements on women’s and young people’s rights.

Honourable Minister, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is now common knowledge that COVID-19 has adversely affected the education system in Eswatini, as it has done elsewhere in the world. With the massive loss of face-to-face teaching and learning time in schools, and the lack of access to remote learning opportunities, the pandemic has had detrimental effects on student learning.  This is likely to widen existing inequalities in education, with the poorest children likely to be the hardest hit. This is a fact, not just here but across our developing world: Children from disadvantaged backgrounds did not benefit from the remote learning opportunities even where these were availed, in the case of Eswatini by the Government with support of development partners, including the UN. This had a negative effect on their education and learning outcomes. 

In this regard, Honourable Minister, it would be remiss of me if I did not take the opportunity to connect the dots in relation to our broader work and aspirations on education, nationally and broadly. As some of you may already be aware, in September, the United Nations Secretary-General is convening the Transforming Education Summit during the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.

The Transforming Education Summit is motivated by two critical observations across our world. First there is a learning crisis that is depriving hundreds of millions of children, young people, and adults of their right to quality education, leaving many of the education-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) well off track. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of effective measures for learning recovery risks turning this crisis into a generational catastrophe, especially for marginalized and vulnerable groups.

Second, the learning crisis is part of a broader challenge relating to the ability of conventional education systems to deliver the knowledge, skills and outlooks needed for children, young people and adults to excel in today’s world and contribute to sustainable, healthy and peaceful futures. I urge that all of us interested in education take an interest in the Transforming Education Summit, including the national preparatory processes.

The objective of the Summit is to mobilize political ambition, action, solutions and solidarity to transform education by taking stock of efforts to recover from the pandemic-related learning losses; reimagining education systems for the world of today and tomorrow; and revitalising national and global efforts to achieve SDG-4.

I thank you, Hon. Minister and your ministry, as well as UNESCO and UNICEF, for leading us in the national preparations.

Indeed, this Education Plus Initiative comes at the very moment when the country is engaged in an extensive pre-Summit consultation process with education stakeholders, including parents, learners, teachers and others, to identify the priorities for the country to transform education and ensure inclusive and equitable quality for all.

Finally, Honourable Minister, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:

The UN, through the SDGs, will continue to support the emergence of an increasingly equal world, and education, when accessible and of quality, presents a pathway for lifting millions out of poverty and other disadvantages. That is why we must work harder to ensure that all obstacles to quality and accessible education – from pandemics, to resources, to violence and discrimination – are not allowed to destroy this great equalizer.

To our young people, my call to you is:

Stay hungry! Stay thirsty for knowledge! Stay curious! And stay safe!

I thank you.

Siyabonga!