Global Education Crisis

By Reagan Nyadimo

Education is the answer to the greatest challenges we face as society and perhaps major contributor to the progress of human development. Its benefits to both individual and society cannot be quantified and this is why it still remains the only path to success. World leaders are aware of these facts and have supported the progress of education in their countries.  Most African countries have made Education free while others have subsidized the fees to allow millions to get basic education. Despite all these efforts, statistics still show that close 57 million children around the world are currently denied the right to education. Statistics in Kenya are no different. According to World Bank, 1,009,592 children were out of school in 2009, a drop from the previous 2,017,389 in 2002. As much as the figures keeps on dropping yearly, the number is still very high in Kenya compared to other counties in Africa.

It is from these worrying statistics that United Nations Secretary Bank Ki Moon and the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched Global Youth Ambassadors (GYA)on 10/04/2014. The Global Youth Ambassadors for A World at School comprises of 500 youths world-wide. According to the newly appointed Kenyan ambassador Denis Mogaka Nyambane, a student from Kenyatta University in the department of Environmental Sciences, their main mandate is to urge leaders to raise budgets, build schools, train more teachers and improve learning for all children in Kenya. The Bachelor degree student in Environmental Science with a passion in education and the only successful candidate in Kenyatta University believes that we can lift over 170 million people out of poverty by teaching every child in low-income country- basic reading skills. A fact he says has been proven.

Nyambane, attributes poverty, early marriage, child-labor and different forms of discrimination as the major reasons why children are kept out of school .He narrates a sad story of two of his fellow Ambassadors: Shazia and Kainat who were shot by Taliban for going to school in Pakistan just over a year ago  and breaks down in tears. He vows to support this initiative till he gets every child into school and wants the world to be aware of this organization that stands for economically challenged children. He is asking not only Kenyans but everybody around the world to join them on twitter @aworldatschool, face book www.facebook.com/AWorldAtSchool and check their website at www.awaorldatschool.org to get the latest news and their progress in support of child education. This initiative is headed by the Sarah Broxn, wife to former UK Prime Minister Mr Brown.