Blog # 11: Youth education, employment and empowerment key to global progress – Ban

On April 2, 2012, Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon spoke at the Colloquium annual meeting of University presidents from around the world and students in New York at the University of Columbia. He spoke at this event about providing education; employment and empowerment for young people are key factors in achieving global progress. He states that “young people everywhere deserve the power to get information, to connect and to ask hard questions about justice, equality and opportunity and they their job is to listen to youth and answer their calls. The main focus of this meeting is to achieve progress through education, employment and empowerment.  Mr. Ban states that “around the world, countries are bringing more children into classrooms, but still more than 125 million young people cannot read or write.” He also talks about how two thirds of all illiterate people are women and this is a problem because when we hold women back, we hurt progress for all people. Mr. Ban talks about educating women so that they can contribute to their communities and boost countries’ economies through their work and knowledge. He also feels that there is a need to educate these women on reproductive health to prevent HIV/AIDS and maternal death. Ban also stressed the need to provide employment opportunities to the 74 million young people who are unemployed worldwide and warned that a lack of jobs can lead to social unrest shown by the civil uprisings in North Africa and Middle East over the past year. Mr. Ban states that education and employment should also be coupled with empowerment and he called on countries to encourage young people’s potential and participation in society.

This is a social global problem because they are working toward bettering young people through education, employment and empowerment. More children are being brought into the classrooms all around the world, but there are still more than 125 million young people who cannot read or write. This is a global problem. Stating the fact that women are more considered to be more illiterate because we hold women back. More steps need to be taken so that there is an equality opportunity for education for all children. I am glad to see Mr. Ban wanting to improve education and to make sure all children get an equal opportunity for education to help better themselves as well as society.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41691&Cr=youth&Cr1