Underscoring the need for compulsory education for all children, Nobel laureate and child rights advocate Kailash Satyarthi expressed his commitment to ensure inclusive and quality education for all children not only in the primary level but also in the secondary level by 2030.
“In spite of all the progress we are making in the world, 58 million children are still deprived of education. It is a shame even one child is left out,” he said while presenting a key note speech at the event titled “Interaction with Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi” organised by Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) yesterday at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.
Blaming child labour as one of the root causes for blocking a child's access to education, he said 168 million children were trapped into various forms of child labour. And out of them 85 million are languishing in the worst part of child labour that includes slavery, trafficking and working in hazardous occupations.
He urged the international community to come forward for children's education. “Every single child matters. So the international community has to react. All children can be brought to school for twenty two billion dollars, which is not a very big amount.”
“I strongly feel that denial of education is a violence against children. Every child is born with this divine right to learn. We are living in the age of knowledge economy. So no country or society can participate in human development and economic growth without ensuring education for all.”
Talking about the attacks in schools across the world Satyarthi said: “Quality education can open up the minds of children. That is why terrorists are attacking the schools.”
He also urged the young people across the world to take up the leadership and make sure that every child has access to quality education.
