Tag Archives: Education

International Day of Education

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Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world — Nelson Mandela

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Education is not just a privilege; it’s a fundamental human right and a foundation for peace and development. Every year, the world comes together on January 24 to celebrate the International Day of Education. This day is a reminder of the power of education to transform lives, strengthen communities, and promote equity across generations. In 2025, the focus of the International Day of Education is set on a critical issue of our time: “Fostering Digital Literacy for All.” As digital technology increasingly shapes every facet of our lives, the emphasis on digital literacy reflects the need to equip individuals worldwide with the skills they need to thrive in a connected world.

The International Day of Education was established in 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly in recognition of education’s role in promoting global peace and sustainable development. Education is enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for free and compulsory elementary education for all. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) specifically seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.

The UN dedicated January 24 as a day to emphasise education’s impact on economic growth, poverty alleviation, gender equality, and social mobility. It calls on governments, civil society, educators, and citizens worldwide to recognize and act on the critical role of education in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. By shining a spotlight on education, the UN aims to drive attention and resources toward ensuring that everyone has access to quality education, regardless of where they live or their socioeconomic status.

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Each year, the International Day of Education adopts a new theme that highlights a pressing global education issue. These themes reflect emerging challenges and underscore education’s vital role in addressing them. For instance, in 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the theme was Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation, which focused on restoring learning opportunities disrupted by the pandemic. In 2022, the theme Changing Course, Transforming Education highlighted the need for innovation in education to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. These themes provide a framework for international organisations, policymakers, educators, and advocates to focus their efforts, raise awareness, and implement changes in educational policies and practices that align with global needs. The day serves as a global rallying call to prioritise education at all levels, address inequalities, and close the gaps in access, quality, and inclusivity in education systems worldwide. By raising awareness, the day encourages nations to make policy commitments, increase funding for education, and work towards equitable, high-quality education for all.

Education is central to the achievement of many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, SDG 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, which supports several other goals such as reducing poverty, achieving gender equality, and promoting decent work. Through initiatives linked to the International Day of Education, communities worldwide are empowered to take concrete steps toward these objectives. The celebration has inspired countries and organisations worldwide to take action. For instance, in some regions, governments have used the day to announce new educational initiatives, while NGOs have leveraged the platform to secure funding for education projects. These examples demonstrate the day’s potential as a catalyst for real change, mobilizing support for increased educational access and improvements across the globe.

In today’s digital era, literacy is no longer limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Digital literacy has become essential for participating fully in society, accessing economic opportunities, and engaging in lifelong learning. In 2025, the theme “Fostering Digital Literacy for All” addresses the pressing need to bridge the digital divide and equip people worldwide with the digital skills necessary to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Digital literacy includes skills that allow individuals to use digital devices, communicate online, and critically evaluate digital content. It’s essential for success in the modern workforce, where most jobs require some level of digital proficiency. Moreover, digital literacy empowers individuals to access valuable information, navigate online services, and engage with society safely and responsibly. This is especially important in a post-pandemic world where education, work, and social interactions increasingly rely on digital platforms. The focus on digital literacy aligns with SDG 4’s goal of promoting equitable education, as it seeks to ensure that everyone, regardless of location or economic status, can gain the skills they need to engage in and benefit from the digital economy.

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UNESCO, along with organizations such as UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), has been at the forefront of promoting digital literacy. Through initiatives like the Global Education Coalition, UNESCO partners with governments, private sector companies, and non-profits to provide digital learning resources, improve connectivity, and ensure that students and teachers in underserved regions have access to the tools they need for digital learning.

Some innovative initiatives have made significant strides in advancing digital literacy. For instance, in certain rural areas, mobile tech schools provide digital devices and internet access to students who lack these resources at home. In parts of Africa, mobile learning platforms bring educational content to students via cell phones, allowing for flexible learning in areas with limited internet connectivity. Government programs in countries like India have launched digital literacy campaigns that train adults and young people alike in essential digital skills. These programs highlight the transformative potential of digital literacy and serve as models that can be adapted and implemented worldwide.

While the benefits of digital literacy are clear, achieving universal digital literacy remains challenging due to barriers related to infrastructure, teacher training, and economic disparities. In many developing countries, access to digital devices and reliable internet remains limited. For digital literacy to become a reality, infrastructure investments are crucial. Expanding internet access to remote areas, providing affordable devices, and creating digital hubs in underserved communities are essential steps toward bridging the digital divide. Teachers play a vital role in imparting digital skills. However, many educators lack the necessary training to incorporate digital literacy into their lessons effectively. Ensuring that teachers are equipped with both digital skills and teaching strategies for digital literacy is essential for preparing students for a digital future.

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Socioeconomic factors also play a major role in access to digital resources. Families with limited financial means may struggle to afford internet access or digital devices for their children. Addressing these disparities requires policy interventions and funding that prioritize affordable access to technology for all. Digital literacy cannot be achieved by governments alone. Collaboration with the private sector, community organizations, and local governments is essential. Many tech companies, for example, partner with schools to donate devices, offer training programs, and fund digital literacy initiatives. Community organizations also play a significant role by providing free or low-cost digital training programs, creating community tech hubs, and offering mentorship to individuals in need. For instance, in countries with limited educational resources, corporations like Google and Microsoft have partnered with local schools to provide teacher training in digital tools. Community-based initiatives, such as public internet hubs and volunteer-led tech literacy workshops, further contribute to building digital skills in underserved areas. Such collaborations demonstrate how partnerships can help make digital literacy accessible to all.

Anyone can support the cause of digital literacy. Individuals can volunteer with local literacy programs, mentor students in digital skills, or donate digital devices to schools and community centers. Raising awareness through social media or community outreach can also help amplify the need for digital literacy. Schools, non-profits, and companies can contribute by launching digital literacy programs, donating resources, or partnering with government agencies to expand access to digital education. Advocacy for policies that support digital literacy as a core educational component can also create lasting change.

The 2025 International Day of Education theme emphasises that digital skills are not a luxury but a necessity. For individuals to thrive in today’s world, they need to understand and utilise digital tools responsibly and effectively. Ensuring that everyone has access to digital literacy is essential for promoting equality, economic opportunity, and social inclusion. By supporting initiatives that promote digital literacy, each of us can contribute to a future where everyone has the skills they need to succeed in a digital world.

In My Hands Today…

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Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning – Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

To most of us, learning something “the hard way” implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners.

Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned.

Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

In My Hands Today…

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All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia – Simon Garfield

The encyclopaedia once shaped our understanding of the world.

Created by thousands of scholars and the most obsessive of editors, a good set conveyed a sense of absolute wisdom on its reader. Contributions from Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Orville Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Marie Curie and Indira Gandhi helped millions of children with their homework. Adults cleared their shelves in the belief that everything that was explainable was now effortlessly accessible in their living rooms.

But now these huge books gather dust, and sell for almost nothing on eBay, and we derive our information from our phones and computers, apparently for free. What have we lost in this transition? And how did we tell the progress of our lives in the past?

All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. It tracks the story from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print. It looks at how Encyclopaedia Britannica came to dominate the industry, how it spawned hundreds of competitors, and how an army of ingenious door-to-door salesmen sold their wares to guilt-ridden parents. It explains how encyclopaedias have reflected our changing attitudes towards sexuality, race and technology, and exposes how these ultimate bastions of trust were often riddled with errors and prejudice.

With his characteristic ability to tackle the broadest of subjects in an illuminating and highly entertaining way, Simon Garfield uncovers a fascinating and important part of our shared past, and wonders whether the promise of complete knowledge – that most human of ambitions – will forever be beyond our grasp.

In My Hands Today…

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Teacher – Gabbie Stroud

Watching children learn is a beautiful and extraordinary experience. Their bodies transform, reflecting inner changes. Teeth fall out. Knees scab. Freckles multiply. Throughout the year they grow in endless ways and I can almost see their self-esteem rising, their confidence soaring, their small bodies now empowered. Given wings.

They fall in love with learning.

It is a kind of magic, a kind of loving, a kind of art.

It is teaching.

Just teaching.

Just what I do.

What I did.

Past tense.

In 2014, Gabrielle Stroud was a very dedicated teacher with over a decade of experience. Months later, she resigned in frustration and despair when she realised that the Naplan-test education model was stopping her from doing the very thing she was best teaching individual children according to their needs and talents. Her ground-breaking essay ‘Teaching Australia’ in the Feb 2016 Griffith Review outlined her experiences and provoked a huge response from former and current teachers around the world. That essay lifted the lid on a scandal that is yet to properly break – that our education system is unfair to our children and destroying their teachers.

In a powerful memoir inspired by her original essay, Gabrielle tells the full how she came to teaching, what makes a great teacher, what our kids need from their teachers, and what it was that finally broke her. A brilliant and heart-breaking memoir that cuts to the heart of a vital matter of national importance.

In My Hands Today…

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Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It – Jennifer Breheny Wallace

In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. They jam-pack their schedules with AP classes, fill every waking hour with resume-padding activities, and even sabotage relationships with friends to “get ahead.” Family incomes and schedules are stretched to the breaking point by tutoring fees and athletic schedules. Yet this drive to optimize performance has only resulted in skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in America’s highest achieving schools. Parents, educators, and community leaders are facing the same how can we teach our kids to strive towards excellence without crushing them?

In Never Enough, award-winning reporter Jennifer Breheny Wallace investigates the deep roots of toxic achievement culture, and finds out what we must do to fight back. Drawing on interviews with families, educators, and an original survey of nearly 6,000 parents, she exposes how the pressure to perform is not a matter of parental choice but baked in to our larger society and spurred by increasing income inequality and dwindling opportunities. As a result, children are increasingly absorbing the message that they have no value outside of their accomplishments, a message that is reinforced by the media and greater culture at large.

Through deep research and interviews with today’s leading child psychologists, Wallace shows what kids need from the adults in the room is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter , and have intrinsic self-worth not contingent upon external achievements. Parents and educators who adopt the language and values of mattering help children see themselves as a valuable contributor to a larger community. And in an ironic twist, kids who receive consistent feedback that they matter no matter what are more likely to have the resilience, self-confidence, and psychological security to thrive.

Packed with memorable stories and offering a powerful toolkit for positive change, Never Enough offers an urgent, humane view of the crisis plaguing today’s teens and a practical framework for how to help.