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Global Action Week for Education GAWE 2024

GAWE 2024 Campaign – Transformative Education

Concept and Campaign Plan
April 22 -26, 2024

The Global Action Week for Education 2024 (GAWE 2024) on April 22-26 is an important landmark as it launches the 25th anniversary of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). It will signify the historic moment in Dakar, Senegal in 1999 when movements and civil society organizations (CSOs) from different continents joined forces to have a unified voice in Education for All (EFA).

GAWE 2024 also marks the 22nd annual week-long campaign coordinated by GCE and celebrated worldwide by education movements and advocates to remind governments, decision-makers, and other stakeholders to deliver on the global commitments for education. EFA was first convened in Jomtien, Thailand, renewed in Dakar, Senegal, reiterated as Education 2030 in Incheon, South Korea, and integrated as SDG 4 in the SDG Agenda 2030 in 2015.

Three decades after Jomtien, while there had been progress, barriers to education persist. UNESCO reported in 2023 that 250 million children remain out of school and 773 million adults around the world, mostly women, still lack basic literacy skills. The existing challenges of gender inequity, discrimination, quality of education, and decreasing education financing are further compounded by the multiple crises that countries are grappling with. Conflicts, economic crises, gender violence, racism, health and climate disasters signal the need for an education that will enable children, youth, and adults to deal with the current realities and shape the future.

Education has enormous power to transform realities. Transformative education has been at the core of GCE’s advocacy. In defending the transformative role of education, GCE challenges attempts to frame education solely as a narrow set of learning outcomes.1 It believes transformative education drives social justice, sustainable development, and individual and collective freedom. Education should be a significant contributor to peace, as a way to build values, knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviours to live in harmony with oneself, with others and the environment.

Read more about Transformative Education

Transformative education was mostly a discourse of civil society organizations and educationalists until COVID-19. Transforming education and education systems have been at the center of education policy actions as schools and learning centers closed and education systems shifted to online education and distance learning. Several countries started rethinking and revising their curricula, connecting learning to daily life, enabling intergenerational learning, and integrating health into education.

Aside from the shift in delivery, the pandemic brought to the fore pressing issues that were neglected in the past by education systems. These issues include mental health, water and sanitation, early marriage’s impact on girls’ education, the digital gender divide, disability-inclusive technology, social protection to prevent school dropout, hazard pay and protection for teachers, and remote and different pathways to learning.

Two years after the pandemic, the Transforming Education Summit (TES) convened by the UN Secretary-General galvanized global efforts to transform education. More than 130 countries committed to “rebooting their education systems and accelerating action to end the learning crisis.3” As many countries faced decreasing education budgets, the Summit called on countries to continue investing in education and fast-track actions to achieve SDG 4 targets. GCE strongly participated in the 5 thematic action tracks namely:

  1. Inclusive, equitable, safe and healthy schools
  2. Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development
  3. Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession
  4. Digital learning and transformation
  5. Financing of education

GCE supported the TES with its firm belief that for education to be transformative, transforming education is required. Education reforms are required to both rethink educational content and prepare education systems to continuously adapt to changing realities, by decolonizing curricula and addressing challenges such as addressing the language of instruction. Education reforms will need to be contextually and culturally sensitive to reach those who are currently furthest behind with education, such as indigenous peoples4.

Following the decision of the GCE World Assembly 2022 and reiterating GCE’s vision and advocacy for transformative education the Global Action Week 2024 (GAWE 2024) will center on the theme of Transformative Education. GAWE 2024 will also be a moment for coalitions, teachers’ unions, students and youth, NGOs, and movements to follow up with their respective governments and development partners on their national and global commitments to the Transforming Education Summit (TES).

As 2030 approaches, GCE will remain vigilant in calling governments’ attention to their commitments to SDG 4 — equitable, inclusive, quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. In the forthcoming Summit of the Future, GCE will advocate for the inclusion of transforming education in the agenda to “deliver a better present and safeguard the future.”

Read more about Summit produces 130 national commitments…

Objectives of the Campaign
  1. Advocate for the inclusion of transforming education as a key agenda in the Summit of the Future
  2. Amplify diverse perspectives of children, youth and adults on transformative education
  3. Broaden the reach of GCE in envisioning transformative education by reaching out to other sectors and constituencies
  4. Hold government and other decision-makers accountable to transformative education and commitments to the Transforming Education Summit (TES)
GAWE Campaign 2024 Priority Agenda

Transformative education is a broad theme and can be approached from a diversity of contexts and perspectives. The campaign will be visionary and expand the conception of education beyond the school and into the communities. It will engage individuals, students and youth, teachers, people organizations, and marginalized communities in their thinking on transformative education. It will narrate inspiring stories of transformation as a testament to education’s transformative power.

The campaign will also be action-oriented:

  • It will call for the protection of the right to education in conflict-affected countries, the right to humanitarian aid, and the enforcement of humanitarian laws such as in education in Gaza, Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ukraine and other countries. The protection of the right to education is a global issue and GCE will collectively highlight social justice, human rights, and peace-building when talking about transformative education in GAWE 2024.
  • It will call the attention of governments to act on transforming education systems and equally mobilize the rights-holders to demand their right to education. GAWE 2024 will hold governments to account for their TES national commitments and use the TES follow-up processes at the country, regional and global levels as venues for advocacy.
  • GAWE 2024 will emphasize two areas of systems transformation. It will strongly advocate for the implementation of the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession. It will also demonstrate transformative practices in educational settings where teachers, educators, and communities play a pivotal role in ensuring learning and participation.
  • Secondly, GAWE 2024 will build on the momentum in last year’s campaign on decolonising education financing and the successful advocacy on the education thematic action track in TES. It will reiterate the urgency to transform financing, change the global tax rules in favour of developing countries and its support for the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UN Tax Convention), an instrument that would have the potential of scaling up financial resources for education.
GAWE 2024 Calls
  1. Education transforms! Invest in public education and transformative education.
  2. Transformative education drives social justice, peace, gender equality and sustainable development. Stand up for the protection of the right to education in conflict-affected countries
  3. No future without education: Transforming education should be at the heart of the Summit of the Future
  4. Implement without delay the Recommendations of the High-level Panel on the Teaching Profession.
  5. Decolonize education financing to transform education systems, Member states must support education financing in the UN Tax Convention!
  6. Beat our drums for transformative education: Let our diverse voices be heard!

Coordinated Campaign Activities

While GAWE will delve into key areas of transformative education and transforming education systems, campaigners at the country level can cover discussion areas based on their country or regional contexts.

Transformative education is multidisciplinary. GAWE 2024 will enjoin sectors outside education/GCE such as the women groups/agencies, health groups, culture and arts groups, labour unions, and environment groups to join the campaign.

Together, we will have a stronger voice for education. During GAWE 2024, there will be key moments of convergence where GCE members and partners worldwide are enjoined to participate.

  1. April 22, Monday – Global launch of GAWE 2024 through a webinar
    GCE members from the 5 regional constituencies, Teachers, INGOs and Students and Youth will be asked to launch the campaign at the same time at 2:30 PM South African Time. Representatives of the constituencies will be asked to share a 2-minute solidarity message. GCE will invite representatives from UNESCO, MOE, and other partners to the launch which also kicks off the celebration of the 25th anniversary of GCE in 2024.
  2. April 23, Tuesday – In-country Solidarity Day to Protect the Right to Education in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine and other conflict-affected countries The solidarity day will feature discussions on the situation of education in Gaza and conflict-affected countries. It will also share the GCE Statement on Protecting the Right to Education in Gaza. The solidarity activity will include lighting a candle for education and humanitarian work in these countries. GCE will provide a guide for the solidarity activity and confirm the time for candle lighting.
  3. April 24, Wednesday – Global webinar on tax justice in the Arab region, advocacy for education financing and UN Framework Convention for International Tax Cooperation. This webinar will be co-organised by the Arab Campaign for Education for All (ACEA), the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and the Global Campaign for Education (GCE).
  4. April 25, Thursday – In-country discussion groups or forums on the Recommendations of the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession. Teachers’ unions, education coalitions and stakeholders are enjoined to hold discussion groups or forums on the Recommendations of the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, local governments and other related agencies and identify strategic actions for implementation.
  5. April 30, Tuesday – ASPBAE webinar on Corporate Capture of Education Technology

Communication strategies

  1. Campaign jingle: Beat the drums for transformative education!
    The campaign jingle will be used for TikTok videos, promotional videos, demonstrations, social media posts, and other communication tools.
  2. Sing the campaign jingle in your language to be captured in TikTok or video. Broadcast the jingle in radios or in communities or street rallies. Bring your own version of your drums!
  3. Campaign pack, social media, traditional media, infographics, media relations
  4. Letter to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) to include transforming education in the Summit of the Future
  5. Courtesy call/dialogue to the government/press release to support the inclusion of education financing in the terms of reference of the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation
  6. Interactive: 30-second TikTok on transformative education using the campaign jingle
  7. Dissemination of messages through arts and music festivals, exhibits and community activities
  8. Production of animation on transformative education, t-shirt designs and others to promote the campaign logo
  9. Share your video: 30-second documentation of the GAWE 2024 messages on transformative education and campaign activities (e.g. festival, street rally, workshop, etc.)

The Campaign Pack can be accessed HERE in all GCE languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic). Click on the following links for –

  1. CONCEPT NOTE and campaign plan – English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic
  2. GUIDE on the workshop/forum on the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession – English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.
  3. Campaign JINGLE in English
  4. GAWE 2024 LOGO
  5. HASHTAG POSTERS and THEMATIC POSTERS in all GCE languages for traditional and social media. Here are the links for the different GCE languages

Hashtag posters

Thematic posters

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