Abu Dhabi: Roughly 250 million children around the world don’t have access to basic education.
More worryingly, half of those children are already attending school, but with such low educational standards, they are missing out on a proper education, severely limiting their opportunities for their future.“There is no silver bullet solution to education reform, this is a long term challenge, and it is a hard challenge,” said Wendy Koop, CEO and co-founder of Teach For All.
Koop has been recognised as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
“We need a systematic long term approach to solve the problem, we need to get serious, and solutions need to come from all directions,” she said.
Education reforms face challenges such as lack of a talent pool as many graduates are recruited by the finance and medical industries, Koop said.
“I was convinced that if we tried to recruit graduates as other institutions do, to get into education as a career, that we would have a lot of graduates that would be very interested in doing so.”
And the results have been a success, according to Koop, with the Teach for All programme managing to attract several graduates, as well as becoming a global programme.
“Most of the graduates we recruit remain in education programmes even after their two years are done. Some remain as teachers while others launch their own education initiatives such as starting their own schools.”
Education reform is important as it leads to strong societies and strong economies, Koop said.
The lecture at the Mohammad Bin Zayed Majlis is part of a series of lectures to be held during Ramadan.
General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, attended the lecture.
- Sami Zaatari is a trainee at Gulf News.
