UNESCO has decided to dedicate the International Day of Education on the 24th of January, 2023 to Afghan girls and women.
- The fifth International Day of Education will be celebrated on 24 January 2023 under the theme “to invest in people, prioritize education”.
- Director general Audrey Azoulay said that no country in the world should bar women and girls from receiving an education and it is a universal human right that must be respected.
- She further said that the international community has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of Afghan girls and women are restored without delay.
- According to UNESCO, currently, around 80 per cent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school under the Taliban rule, as they denied them access to secondary schools and universities.
- Today, 244 million children and youth are out of school, and 771 million adults are illiterate. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable. It’s time to transform education.
- The right to education is enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education.
- The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, goes further to stipulate that countries shall make higher education accessible to all.
