International Education Day 2023: The fifth International Education Day is being celebrated today (January 24). The event is celebrated for the role of education in bringing global peace and development. This year the theme of International Education Day is “to invest in people, prioritize education,” according to the official website of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

UNESCO has dedicated the fifth edition of International Education Day to all the girls and women of Afghanistan, who have been denied their right to learn, study and teach.  

International Education Day 2023: History and Significance 

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 3, 2018, passed a resolution for January 24 to be considered as the International Day of Education. After this, the first International Day of Education was observed on January 24, 2019.

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International Education Day 2023: What will happen?

UNESCO will celebrate International Education Day at its headquarters in New York.

The event will highlight one of the most challenging crises of the current times: Afghanistan girls being denied the fundamental right to education.

Meanwhile, the first SDG4 benchmark publication by UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report and Institute for Statistics will also be launched. It will monitor the country’s progress towards the benchmarks, including those discussed at the Transforming Education Summit.

According to UNESCO, “International Day of Education 2023 will be a global platform to sustain political mobilisation, take forward national commitments and global initiatives, and step up public engagement in favour of education as the path to peace, sustainable development and individual and collective well-being.”

It further added, “The Organization condemns this serious attack on human dignity and on the fundamental right to education.”

UNESCO has also pointed out that almost 244 million children and youth are out of school, and 71 million adults are illiterate.

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