How far are we from truly empowering youth in education? We are working to find out whether governments meaningfully engage youth and students in education legislation and policy making around the world. But we also need to know what youth and student organizations think. On International Youth Day, we are inviting student and youth organization […] The post Youth and student organizations – we need you! appeared first on World Education Blog.
How far are we from truly empowering youth in education? We are working to find out whether governments meaningfully engage youth and students in education legislation and policy making around the world. But we also need to know what youth and student organizations think. On International Youth Day, we are inviting student and youth organization from one of these categories
- National Youth Councils
- Youth Advisory Bodies
- School student organizations
- University student organizations
… or any other national or umbrella organizations who are directly involved in education, to complete a short survey and take part in this unique global exercise.
Background
In September 2022, the UN Transforming Education Summit launched a worldwide push to rethink and improve education, with young people at the centre of the discussion. The UN Secretary-General called for young people – with their ideas, experiences, and energy – to lead the way on education. At the Summit, youth from all over the world made some clear demands in the Youth Declaration:
- Be heard and included: Young people – in all our diversity – want to be truly included in making decisions about education. This means being involved at every stage, from planning new policies to making sure they work.
- Be supported in exercising their leadership: There was a call for more investment in youth and student leaders, especially those from marginalized or vulnerable communities, and for youth to be a part of bodies that make decisions.
The Summit led to the creation of the Global Youth Initiative, as part of which the extent of youth and student engagement in education policy making should be assessed. The SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC) tasked the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics with working on this process – the first ever of its kind.
How can you help?
The GEM Report developed two surveys to collect relevant information: one has been administered to governments and the other to youth and student organizations. The survey was designed in consultation with the SDG 4 Youth Network, the Global Student Forum, and youth participation experts, in close collaboration with the United Nations Youth Office.
Up to five youth and student organizations are being contacted in each country to request their perspective on the extent and nature of their engagement in education legislation and policy making.
If you represent a national youth council, youth advisory body, school or university student organization, we want to hear your perspectives on how and whether you have been consulted on education policy making in your country. Please contact us at [email protected] and we will send you a short questionnaire to complete.
What’s next?
The results from this exercise will be featured in the 2026 Youth Report that will be published by the GEM Report. Prepared in partnership with the UN Youth Office, the report will be the youth edition of the 2024/5 GEM Report cycle on leadership and education. It will analyse how youth and students are engaged by governments on education laws and policies, drawing primarily on data gathered from the two surveys.
Join us to make your organization’s voice heard and continue working together to recognize, nurture and value young people’s vital contributions as agents of positive change in education.
The post Youth and student organizations – we need you! appeared first on World Education Blog.
