Education for all: a right to learn and thrive - IOL
August, National Women’s Month, highlights the urgent need for gender equality and women's empowerment. The writer explores how these principles are essential for societal transformation and global peace. International Literacy Day, September 8, highlights education as a fundamental human right. The writer says education should develop intellectual abilities and moral qualities, enabling people to contribute to just, united and peaceful communities.
September 8, observed annually as International Literacy Day, highlights the importance of education. It reminds us that no one should be deprived of the opportunity to acquire literacy and knowledge, and develop to their full potential.
Education is a fundamental human right. Yet according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, despite significant global progress, 739 million adults still cannot read and write, two thirds of them being women, while 4 in every 10 children fail to achieve minimum proficiency in reading.
In its statement ‘The Promise of World Peace’, the Universal House of Justice, the international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith, says: “The cause of universal education … deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its citizens”.
While providing access to education for children, youth, and adults is essential, it is not enough to focus only on enrolling them in schools and in institutions of learning. There is a need to generate in individuals a vision of the kind of community they wish to live in – a community characterized by justice and peace, a community in which the potential of every individual is valued and utilized.
This can empower individuals to become not only recipients of knowledge but also become active participants in building better communities, and a more united and peaceful world.
This, of course, is dependent on individuals receiving a balanced education – one that nurtures both moral empowerment and intellectual development.
The founder of the Bahá’í Faith, “… Bahá’u’lláh considered education as one of the most fundamental factors of a true civilization. This education, however, in order to be adequate and fruitful, should be comprehensive in nature and should take into consideration not only the physical and the intellectual side of man but also his spiritual and ethical aspects”.
An education that enriches both mind and spirit should cultivate moral attributes such as truthfulness, courtesy, generosity, compassion, justice, love, and trustworthiness. When these qualities are reflected in daily life, they can help create harmonious and productive families and communities.
At the same time, such an education should instil the awareness of the fundamental oneness of humanity, encouraging individuals to value diversity and to interact happily with people of all backgrounds with fellowship and respect.
According to the Universal House of Justice, “the diversity that characterizes the human family, far from contradicting its oneness, endows it with richness. Unity, in its Bahá’í expression, contains the essential concept of diversity, distinguishing it from uniformity. … world unity is possible—nay, inevitable—it ultimately cannot be achieved without unreserved acceptance of the oneness of humankind”.
Educational programmes should cultivate in individuals the capacity to participate actively in their own development. They should empower people to become collaborators in both their personal growth and the advancement of their communities, enabling them to contribute meaningfully to the creation of a just, united, and peaceful world.
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