speech on today's education system

Speech on Modern Education System

The modern education system is all about learning new things in exciting ways. It uses technology to make lessons interesting and interactive.

You might find yourself using a computer or tablet more often. This is because the modern education system believes in learning through experience and practical involvement.

1-minute Speech on Modern Education System

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The modern education system is like a big tree. A tree that gives us the fruits of knowledge and the shade of skills. It’s a system that helps us grow and become strong. It’s a bridge that takes us from the world of books into the world of real action.

Think about today’s classrooms; they are not just rooms with four walls. They are more like magic boxes filled with bright screens and interesting sounds. Here, we not only read books but also learn from videos, games and even virtual reality. This makes learning fun and easy.

But, it’s not just about fun. The modern education system also prepares us for the future. It teaches us how to think, not what to think. It trains us to solve problems, work in teams, and understand different cultures. These skills are very important in today’s world.

Then, there’s the idea of lifelong learning. In the past, people thought education was only for kids and young people. But today, everyone can learn at any age. We have online courses, apps and websites that help us learn new things anytime, anywhere.

Yet, like every big tree, the modern education system has some weak branches. Some students feel stressed. Some teachers feel pressured. We need to fix these problems. We need to make sure that everyone can enjoy the fruits of this tree, not just a few.

So, let’s work together. Let’s make the modern education system better. Because, as a wise man once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

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• Essay on Modern Education System

2-minute Speech on Modern Education System

Good day to all!

Today, we’re talking about something very close to our hearts – the modern education system. It’s like a big tree that feeds our minds, and just like a tree, it’s always growing and changing.

Our first stop is the classroom. Imagine a room buzzing with activity. Kids are not just sitting and listening, they’re talking, asking questions and even teaching each other. That’s because the modern education system encourages active learning. It’s not about memorizing facts and figures anymore. It’s about understanding, problem-solving and critical thinking. It’s like we’re building a toolbox of skills that will help us not just in school, but in our whole life.

Next, let’s talk about technology. Computers, tablets, and even our phones are now part of our classrooms. With these tools, a world of information is at our fingertips. We can learn at our own speed, and even when we are at home. Teachers use technology to make lessons more interesting and fun. Instead of just reading about a volcano, we can watch a video of an actual eruption! It’s like we have a magic carpet that can take us anywhere in the world, or even outside it!

Now, let’s move on to our teachers. In the modern education system, teachers are no longer seen as the sole source of knowledge. They are guides, helping us explore and discover things on our own. They encourage us to ask questions and to think for ourselves. It’s like each one of us is a little explorer, and our teachers are our trusted compass.

Lastly, let’s not forget about the importance of life skills. The modern education system understands that there’s more to life than books and exams. That’s why schools are now teaching us things like teamwork, leadership, and even how to manage our emotions. It’s like we’re not just building our minds, but our hearts as well.

In conclusion, the modern education system is like a big, beautiful tree. Its roots are deep in the values of understanding and self-discovery. Its branches reach out to the sky, embracing technology and life skills. And its fruits are us, the learners, ready to face the challenges of the future.

Thank you for your time. Let’s continue to learn, grow and make the most of our journey in this wonderful world of modern education.

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The turning point: Why we must transform education now

Global warming. Accelerated digital revolution. Growing inequalities. Democratic backsliding. Loss of biodiversity. Devastating pandemics. And the list goes on. These are just some of the most pressing challenges that we are facing today in our interconnected world.

The diagnosis is clear: Our current global education system is failing to address these alarming challenges and provide quality learning for everyone throughout life. We know that education today is not fulfilling its promise to help us shape peaceful, just, and sustainable societies. These findings were detailed in UNESCO’s Futures of Education Report in November 2021 which called for a new social contract for education.

That is why it has never been more crucial to reimagine the way we learn, what we learn and how we learn. The turning point is now. It’s time to transform education. How do we make that happen?

Here’s what you need to know. 

Why do we need to transform education?

The current state of the world calls for a major transformation in education to repair past injustices and enhance our capacity to act together for a more sustainable and just future. We must ensure the right to lifelong learning by providing all learners - of all ages in all contexts - the knowledge and skills they need to realize their full potential and live with dignity. Education can no longer be limited to a single period of one’s lifetime. Everyone, starting with the most marginalized and disadvantaged in our societies, must be entitled to learning opportunities throughout life both for employment and personal agency. A new social contract for education must unite us around collective endeavours and provide the knowledge and innovation needed to shape a better world anchored in social, economic, and environmental justice.  

What are the key areas that need to be transformed?

• Inclusive, equitable, safe and healthy schools

Education is in crisis. High rates of poverty, exclusion and gender inequality continue to hold millions back from learning. Moreover, COVID-19 further exposed the inequities in education access and quality, and violence, armed conflict, disasters and reversal of women’s rights have increased insecurity. Inclusive, transformative education must ensure that all learners have unhindered access to and participation in education, that they are safe and healthy, free from violence and discrimination, and are supported with comprehensive care services within school settings. Transforming education requires a significant increase in investment in quality education, a strong foundation in comprehensive early childhood development and education, and must be underpinned by strong political commitment, sound planning, and a robust evidence base.

• Learning and skills for life, work and sustainable development

There is a crisis in foundational learning, of literacy and numeracy skills among young learners. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70% of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text. Children with disabilities are 42% less likely to have foundational reading and numeracy skills compared to their peers. More than 771 million people still lack basic literacy skills, two-thirds of whom are women. Transforming education means empowering learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to be resilient, adaptable and prepared for the uncertain future while contributing to human and planetary well-being and sustainable development. To do so, there must be emphasis on foundational learning for basic literacy and numeracy; education for sustainable development, which encompasses environmental and climate change education; and skills for employment and entrepreneurship.

• Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession

Teachers are essential for achieving learning outcomes, and for achieving SDG 4 and the transformation of education. But teachers and education personnel are confronted by four major challenges: Teacher shortages; lack of professional development opportunities; low status and working conditions; and lack of capacity to develop teacher leadership, autonomy and innovation. Accelerating progress toward SDG 4 and transforming education require that there is an adequate number of teachers to meet learners’ needs, and all education personnel are trained, motivated, and supported. This can only be possible when education is adequately funded, and policies recognize and support the teaching profession, to improve their status and working conditions.

• Digital learning and transformation

The COVID-19 crisis drove unprecedented innovations in remote learning through harnessing digital technologies. At the same time, the digital divide excluded many from learning, with nearly one-third of school-age children (463 million) without access to distance learning. These inequities in access meant some groups, such as young women and girls, were left out of learning opportunities. Digital transformation requires harnessing technology as part of larger systemic efforts to transform education, making it more inclusive, equitable, effective, relevant, and sustainable. Investments and action in digital learning should be guided by the three core principles: Center the most marginalized; Free, high-quality digital education content; and Pedagogical innovation and change.

• Financing of education

While global education spending has grown overall, it has been thwarted by high population growth, the surmounting costs of managing education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the diversion of aid to other emergencies, leaving a massive global education financial gap amounting to US$ 148 billion annually. In this context, the first step toward transformation is to urge funders to redirect resources back to education to close the funding gap. Following that, countries must have significantly increased and sustainable financing for achieving SDG 4 and that these resources must be equitably and effectively allocated and monitored. Addressing the gaps in education financing requires policy actions in three key areas: Mobilizing more resources, especially domestic; increasing efficiency and equity of allocations and expenditures; and improving education financing data. Finally, determining which areas needs to be financed, and how, will be informed by recommendations from each of the other four action tracks .

What is the Transforming Education Summit?

UNESCO is hosting the Transforming Education Pre-Summit on 28-30 June 2022, a meeting of  over 140 Ministers of Education, as well as  policy and business leaders and youth activists, who are coming together to build a roadmap to transform education globally. This meeting is a precursor to the Transforming Education Summit to be held on 19 September 2022 at the UN General Assembly in New York. This high-level summit is convened by the UN Secretary General to radically change our approach to education systems. Focusing on 5 key areas of transformation, the meeting seeks to mobilize political ambition, action, solutions and solidarity to transform education: to take stock of efforts to recover pandemic-related learning losses; to reimagine education systems for the world of today and tomorrow; and to revitalize national and global efforts to achieve SDG-4.

• More on the Transforming Education Summit
• More on the Pre-Summit

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• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

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Our education system is losing relevance. Here's how to unleash its potential

Our education system was founded to supply workers with a relatively fixed set of skills and knowledge

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Stay up to date:.

• Our current education system is built on the Industrial Revolution model and focuses on IQ, in particular memorization and standardization;
• We must update education with job readiness, the ability to compete against smart machines and the creation of long-term economic value in mind;
• Education access, equity and quality must be improved to solve the global education crisis – 72 million children of primary education age are not in school.

Education today is in crisis. Even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, in many parts of the world, children who should be in school aren’t; for those who are, their schools often lack the resources to provide adequate instruction. At a time when quality education is arguably more vital to one’s life chances than ever before, these children are missing out on the education needed to live fulfilling lives as adults and to participate in and contribute to the world economy.

Historically, education has been the shortest bridge between the haves and the have-nots, bringing progress and prosperity for both individuals and countries, but the current education system is showing its age. Founded at a time when industries needed workers with a relatively fixed set of skills and knowledge, it is losing its relevance in an era of innovation, disruption and constant change, where adaptability and learning agility are most needed.

Have you read?

Two things that need to change for the future of education, the world is failing miserably on access to education. here's how to change course, how higher education can adapt to the future of work.

Our current education system, built on the Industrial Revolution model, focuses on IQ, in particular memorization and standardization – skills that will be easily and efficiently supplanted by artificial and augmented intelligence (AI), where IQ alone isn’t sufficient. A good blend of IQ (intelligence) + EQ (emotional intelligence) + RQ (resilience) is critical to unleashing a student’s potential.

Evaluating our current education system against three criteria – job readiness, ability to compete against smart machines for jobs and creating long-term economic value – reveals the following:

• 34% of students believe their schools are not preparing them for success in the job market . We need to fix the bridge from education to employability;
• 60% of future jobs haven’t been developed yet and 40% of nursery-age children (kindergarteners) in schools today will need to be self-employed to have any form of income (Source: WEF Future of Jobs Report). We need to prepare students for jobs that haven’t been created yet and to become entrepreneurs. What we need to learn, how we learn, and the role of the teacher are all changing.

The $1.5 trillion in student debt in the US is the second highest debt after home mortgages . With tuition fees expected to break $100,000 per year , student debt will be crushing for future generations. Even Barack Obama was reportedly paying off student loans in his 40s . With the average new college graduate making $48,400 , many people will be paying off their student loans well into their retirement, hurting their ability to save, buy homes, support their families and contribute to philanthropic efforts.

While we work to transform education, we also need to make it more accessible. According to UNICEF, more than 72 million children of primary education age are not in school, while 750 million adults are illiterate and do not have the ability to improve their and their children’s living conditions . As we take on education transformation, daisy-chaining across three crucial categories (access, equity, quality/impact) is critical for unleashing potential.

Access means ensuring learners everywhere are not prevented by circumstances from being in school and getting an education. Access to education is low in many developing nations, but inequalities also exist within developed countries that are highly stratified socially , for example, in the UK . How do we make education/learning more accessible? What role can technology play? How can countries, particularly developing ones, hold on to top talent to ensure economic progress?

Equity means ensuring every child has the resources needed to get to school and to thrive, regardless of circumstance. While equality means treating every student the same; equity means making sure every student has the support they need to be successful. The essential drivers are fairness (ensuring that personal and social circumstances do not prevent students from achieving their academic potential); and inclusion (setting a basic minimum standard for all students regardless of background, gender or location). This leads to several questions: how do you raise awareness in communities? What role can technology play in creating personalized and differentiated learning so all students get the kind of instruction they need to succeed?

The definition of quality and success has to move beyond standardized test scores to a more holistic measurement tied to life improvements and societal impact. Quality education would provide learners with capabilities and competencies required to make them economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, enhance individual well-being and contribute to community. The impact orientation will help shift our gaze away from behaviour and activities (attending school and checking the box) to value-creation environments (from personalized learning and career counselling to job readiness and becoming responsible global citizens).

It’s in everybody’s best interest to solve the global education crisis:

• 13 million US students are likely to drop out of school during the next decade costing the country $3 trillion;
• Compared to high-school dropouts, graduates pay more taxes, draw less from social welfare programmes and are less likely to commit a crime;
• An 8% improvement in US PISA scores in the next 20 years would boost GDP by about $70 trillion in the next 80 years.

“Investing in education is the most cost-effective way to drive economic development, improve skills and opportunities for young women and men, and unlock progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals," says United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres .

So let us reset education and learning to meet 21st-century needs , shaping a path from education to employability and economic independence.

Let’s all commit to collectively helping to break a link in the shackles holding education back. Let’s blend the lessons of the past with the technology of the present and future to truly transform education, giving students the ability to think, learn and evolve no matter what the challenges that await them tomorrow and unleash their potential to benefit the world.

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The Biden presidency and a new direction in education policy

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, kenneth k. wong kenneth k. wong nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy.

December 17, 2020

Within the first moments of his speech acknowledging the news that he won the presidential election, Joe Biden heralded a good day for educators. He took the opportunity to acknowledge the educational contribution of Dr. Jill Biden, community college professor and soon-to-be first lady. Biden’s commitment to education is visibly displayed in many of the 49 action plans posted on his website.

But the incoming Biden-Harris administration faces major policy and political challenges in the education realm, many of which stem from President Trump’s unilateral action to reduce federal involvement in American schooling. The Trump team primarily pursued a strategy of rolling back initiatives launched by the Obama administration that promoted systemic racial equality, protected student rights, and strengthened state and district capacity.

President Trump’s disengagement has created broader policy challenges for the Biden administration as well. The nation’s schools are stretched beyond their capacity to deliver remote instruction and ensure student safety during the pandemic. State budgetary shortfalls will need timely federal assistance. Across thousands of local communities, the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired a racial justice agenda, with clear ripple effects on public schools. Political support for the Biden agenda seems unpredictable as the public sends mixed signals on divided governance.

Taking into account candidate Biden’s policy platform, the current policy challenges, and the governing landscape in 2021, I see the Biden-Harris administration likely to focus on several priority areas related to American schooling.

Tame the pandemic and invest in innovation

Confronting the pandemic is Biden’s primary education issue beginning on Jan. 20, 2021. Biden has repeatedly announced that he wants to shut down the virus so he can safely reopen schools and the economy. The Biden administration has relied on the nation’s top health experts to develop effective anti-pandemic strategies and establish national guidelines to restore the nation’s economic and social life. The new administration will need to strengthen its partnership with states and districts to ensure school safety and to implement strategies that narrow the widening learning gap associated with the pandemic—especially in racially or economically marginalized communities.

Recent research found a significant gap in mathematics arising during the pandemic. Clearly, the Biden administration will need to act swiftly to work with states and districts to start addressing the gap in teaching, connectivity, resources, social-emotional well-being, and student engagement. In the absence of federal support, the achievement gap and children’s nonacademic needs are likely to grow. Drawing on lessons from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Biden administration may launch an education-focused package to ensure school safety, stabilize teacher employment, strengthen bandwidth for remote and hybrid learning, and prioritize educators to receive vaccines.

The Biden team is well positioned to simultaneously manage the next few months of the pandemic and the next generation of learning systems through investments in governmental capacity. The Biden administration may incentivize health and education agencies to share data, coordinate resource allocation, streamline communications, engage parents and communities, and deploy rapid response teams to combat hot spots. Equally important, Biden is well positioned to make significant investment in remote and hybrid learning, pilot new schooling models with flexible schedule and spatial design, and, at the secondary and postsecondary levels, promote cross-institutional collaboration to meet the educational challenge of the global system in the 21 st century. These investments may potentially transform teaching and learning by lessening the constraints bounded by place and time. The post-pandemic period may usher a new system of schooling delivery to address inequality of access by zip code and income and racial segregation.

Fight systemic racism

The Biden presidential campaign is closely connected to the hopes and strength of the Black community as articulated in the overwhelming Black support that Biden received throughout the presidential race. The Biden presidency is likely to use executive and administrative tools to reverse the erosion of systemic oversight in civil rights and diversity issues. During the Trump years, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has reduced its reporting requirements and its enforcement activities. It withdrew Obama-era guidelines designed to reduce racial and other discrimination in the implementation of school disciplinary actions. The Trump administration sought to restrict the ability of student borrowers to sue loan-service contractors under state law, and it rescinded Obama-promulgated regulations to penalize for-profit vocational schools that had failed to attain employment targets for their graduates.

The Biden presidency has the opportunity to collaborate with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), and tribal colleges to address systemic inequality. In this regard, Trump’s effort was piecemeal. With support from Congress, the Trump administration wrote off loans incurred by several HBCUs to repair damages caused by Hurricane Katrina and made federal STEM funding in HBCUs permanent. The Biden administration is likely to adopt a more comprehensive approach that links K-12 and postsecondary opportunities for the Black community. As a graduate of Howard University, Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is uniquely positioned to shape federal investment in Black-focused initiatives, including medical education and research, legal training, workforce development, and business and social work.

Human capital investment strategies

Biden’s agenda calls for new strategies in human capital investment. First, the federal government can scale education initiatives that are embraced by a number of states and districts. For example, several governors and mayors implement pre-K programs; strengthen the quality and the range of skills-based programs in community colleges; invest in STEM education; and partner with higher ed institutions to ensure teacher education programs adopt high-quality standards that are meeting the needs of a growingly diverse population.

Second, the federal government can lead and incentivize innovative practices. In this regard, a critical area that matters in the long run is evidence-based research, which has historically received modest federal support. However, well-executed research has contributed to high-impact strategies and practices in teacher quality, student applications for college financial aid, special education, early childhood education, and charter schools, among other areas. Consistent with multilateralism, the Biden team can take a leading role in international benchmarking. The Biden presidency has an opportunity to narrow the research-practice gap by investing in the R&D functions of the Department of Education.

Deliver new legislation in higher education

Trump’s general lack of interest in higher education has further delayed the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which has been due since 2014. To be sure, building a legislative coalition is complicated by limited federal authority and strong nonpublic partners in higher education. Reauthorization efforts were stalled even when the Senate HELP Committee’s chair, Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and its ranking member, Patty Murray (D-Wash.), demonstrated bipartisan cooperation. Clearly, presidential leadership is needed. Biden seems ready to apply his legislative skills and coalition-building experience to craft a bipartisan, omnibus bill.

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September 29, 2020

The Biden administration is likely to propose an omnibus higher education bill that improves access, affordability, inclusion, and accountability. Access and affordability would require an expansion of Pell Grants, which currently are set at $6,345—not nearly enough to cover the average cost for tuition and fees at a public institution. These policy aims will call for federal loan forgiveness based on income eligibility, veterans’ support, teacher education enhancement, and investment in HBCUs, HSIs, and tribal colleges. New guardrails will be needed to ensure student borrowers’ rights—including about 350,000 borrowers with disabilities—civil rights, gender equity, and victims’ rights for those who have endured sexual harassment or assault on school campuses. Potentially new federal funding will focus on diversity and STEM, while FAFSA application and verification will be more customer friendly.

Biden’s proposal on student loan forgiveness is likely to be favorably received by the higher educator sector , as many colleges and universities have already put in place loan-free programs based on income eligibility. The Biden administration is likely to form multilateral partnerships to promote freely accessible two-year colleges, scaling similar programs that are implemented in Rhode Island and several states. Community colleges, as critical pathways toward economic mobility, will receive particular attention given Dr. Jill Biden’s decades of experience in this area.

Return to responsible governance

The Trump presidency had an adversarial and chaotic relationship with the education community. For example, Secretary Betsy DeVos or her Department of Education have been sued in 455 lawsuits—the most ever in the history of the department, according to an analysis by The 74 . This includes eight multistate suits. Most of the complaints focused on student borrowers’ rights, gainful employment, and civil rights. As a comparison, there were 356 cases brought against the Education Department or the secretary of education during Obama’s two terms combined, including zero multistate lawsuits.

Recognizing an urgency to restore responsible governance to address multiple crises, the incoming Biden presidency signals a strong commitment to engage diverse stakeholders and subject-matter experts. Biden’s education agenda will need a broad coalition beyond the Beltway that includes civil rights leaders, governors, mayors, teachers’ unions, state legislative leaders, innovative practitioners, higher education leaders, and civic and business stakeholders. Guided by a clear moral compass to serve all students and their families, president-elect Biden will be able to steer the nation toward educational progress.

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General assembly, 19 september 2022, secretary-general's opening remarks at the transforming education summit, antónio guterres.

[All-English version; scroll down for bilingual, as delivered, and all-French versions]

Excellencies,

Dear young people, teachers, parents and partners.

Throughout my life, education has been my guide and touchstone.

I regard myself as a lifelong student.

And I have drawn great inspiration from my work as a teacher, many decades ago.

Without education, where would I be? Where would any of us be?

Every single person in this room knows education transforms lives, economies and societies.

But we also know we must transform education.

Because education is in a deep crisis.

Instead of being the great enabler, education is fast becoming a great divider.

Some 70 percent of 10-year-olds in poor countries are unable to read a basic text.

Either they are out of school, or in school but barely learning.

Even in developed countries, education systems often entrench rather than reduce inequality, reproducing it across generations.

The rich have access to the best resources, schools and universities, leading to the best jobs, while the poor – especially girls – face huge obstacles to getting the qualifications that could change their lives.

Displaced people and students with disabilities face the highest obstacles of all. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on learning worldwide, and dealt a hammer blow to progress on SDG4.

But the education crisis began long before – and runs much deeper.

The report card from the International Commission on the Future of Education put it clearly: education systems don’t make the grade.

They are failing students and societies, by favouring rote learning and competition for grades.

Too often, curricula are outdated and narrow.

Education systems take little account of lifelong learning.

Teachers are under-trained, undervalued and underpaid.

The digital divide penalizes poor students.

And the education financing gap yawns wider than ever.

We will not end this crisis by simply doing more of the same, faster or better.

Now is the time to transform education systems.

So dear world leaders,

Your people, the world’s young people and future generations are calling on you to act with vision and purpose.

A new vision for education in the 21st century is taking shape.

Above all, quality education must support the development of the individual learner throughout his or her life.

It must help people learn how to learn, with a focus on problem-solving and collaboration.

It must provide the foundations for learning, from reading, writing and mathematics to scientific, digital, social and emotional skills.

It must also develop students’ capacity to adapt to the rapidly changing world of work.

It must be accessible to all from the earliest stages and throughout their lives.

And it must help us learn to live and work together, and to understand ourselves and our responsibilities to each other and to our planet.

At a time of rampant misinformation, climate denial and attacks on human rights, we need education systems that distinguish fact from conspiracy, instill respect for science, and celebrate humanity in all its diversity.

To move from this vision to reality, allow me to highlight five areas for your attention and commitment.

First, we must protect the right to quality education for everyone, especially girls. Everywhere.

Schools must be open to all, without discrimination.

We must recover the years of education lost around the world because of the pandemic.

Quality education for all means tackling the crisis in foundational learning and ensuring it is life-long.

And placing a greater focus on education in crisis hotspots.

From this platform, I appeal to the authorities in Afghanistan: Lift all restrictions on girls’ access to secondary education immediately.

Girls’ education is among the most important steps to deliver peace, security and sustainable development, everywhere.

Second, teachers are the lifeblood of education systems.

We need a new focus on their roles and skillsets.

Today’s teachers need to be facilitators in the classroom, promoting learning rather than merely transmitting answers.

We also need to tackle the global shortage of teachers, and look at increasing their quality, by raising their status and ensuring they have decent working conditions and continuous training and learning opportunities, and receive adequate salaries.

Third, schools must become safe, healthy spaces, with no place for violence, stigma or intimidation. 

Education systems should promote the physical and mental health of all students – including their sexual and reproductive health.

Fourth, the digital revolution must benefit all learners.

I urge countries to improve connectivity for students and educational institutions. Our own Giga initiative aims to get all schools online.

But connectivity in itself doesn’t provide an education.

I encourage governments and teachers to work with private sector partners on high-quality digital education content for all.

Fifth, finance.  

None of this will be possible without a surge in education financing and global solidarity.

During these difficult times, I urge all countries to protect education budgets and ensure that education spending translates into progressive increases in resources per student and better learning outcomes.  

Education financing must be the number one priority for Governments. It is the single most important investment any country can make in its people and its future.

The international community has a critically important role to play.

I urge development partners to reverse cuts and to dedicate at least 15 percent of official development assistance to education.

International financial institutions should make resources and fiscal space available for developing countries to invest.

Their spending and policy advice should be aligned with delivering quality education for all.  

I also urge IFIs to draw upon the International Finance Facility for Education.  

This facility is a new tool that aims to mobilize $10 billion to help 700 million children in lower-middle-income countries to access quality education.

Dear friends,

The Transforming Education Summit will only achieve its global goals by mobilizing a global movement.

Governments, young people, civil society, teachers, business leaders and philanthropists are stepping up.

The United Nations is joining forces, through UNESCO, UNICEF and our UN teams on the ground.

Let’s move forward together, so that everyone can learn, thrive and dream throughout their lives.

Let’s make sure today’s learners and future generations can access the education they need, to create a more sustainable, inclusive, just and peaceful world for all.

*************************************************************************************

[Bilingual, as delivered, version]

Displaced people and students with disabilities face the highest obstacles of all.  

Third, schools must become safe, healthy spaces, with no place for violence, stigma or intimidation.  

Excellences, 

En quatrième lieu, la révolution numérique doit profiter à tous les élèves.

Je demande aux États de faire en sorte que les étudiants et les établissements d’enseignement soient mieux connectés. À cet égard, notre initiative Giga vise à mettre toutes les écoles en ligne.

Mais la connectivité – en elle-même – ne suffit pas pour offrir une éducation.

J’encourage les gouvernements et les enseignants à collaborer avec les partenaires du secteur privé pour développer des contenus éducatifs numériques de haute qualité pour toutes et tous.

Cinquièmement, la question du financement.

Rien de tout cela ne sera possible sans une augmentation du financement de l’éducation et sans un élan de solidarité mondiale contre les inégalités   En ces temps difficiles, j’exhorte tous les pays à protéger les budgets consacrés à l’éducation et à veiller à ce que leurs dépenses dans ce domaine se traduisent par une augmentation progressive des ressources par élève et par de meilleurs résultats scolaires.

Le financement de l’éducation doit être la priorité numéro un des gouvernements. C’est le meilleur investissement qu’un pays puisse faire dans sa population et son avenir.

La communauté internationale a un rôle crucial à jouer.

Je demande aux partenaires de développement d’annuler les réductions d’aide et de consacrer au moins 15 % de l’aide publique au développement à l’éducation.

Les institutions financières internationales doivent apporter des ressources aux pays en développement et leur laisser des marges de manœuvre budgétaire pour qu’ils puissent investir.

Leurs dépenses et leurs conseils doivent correspondre à l’objectif d’assurer une éducation de qualité pour toutes et tous. J’invite également les institutions financières internationales à tirer parti de la Facilité internationale de financement pour l’éducation.

Cet outil vise à mobiliser 10 milliards de dollars pour aider quelque 700 millions d’enfants vivant dans les pays à revenu intermédiaire de la tranche inférieure à recevoir une éducation de qualité.

Chers amis,

Le Sommet sur la Transformation de l’Éducation ne pourra atteindre ses objectifs globaux qu’en suscitant un mouvement mondial.

Les gouvernements, les jeunes, la société civile, les enseignants, les chefs d’entreprise et les donateurs se mobilisent.

L’ONU rassemble toutes ses forces, grâce à l’action de l’UNESCO, de l’UNICEF et des équipes des Nations Unies présentes sur le terrain. Avançons ensemble, afin que chacun puisse apprendre, s’épanouir et rêver tout au long de son existence.

Faisons en sorte que les élèves d’aujourd’hui et les générations futures puissent accéder à l’éducation dont ils ont besoin, afin de créer un monde plus durable, plus inclusif, plus juste et plus pacifique – pour toutes et pour tous.

Je vous remercie.

***************************************************************

[All-French version]

Mesdames et Messieurs,

Chers jeunes gens, enseignants, parents et partenaires,

L’éducation a toujours été un guide pour moi et joué un rôle essentiel dans ma vie.

Je me considère comme un étudiant à vie.

Mon activité d’enseignant a été une grande source d’inspiration, il y a plusieurs décennies.

Si je n’avais pas reçu d’éducation, qui sait ce que je serais devenu. Où serions-nous, toutes et tous ?

Chaque personne ici présente sait que l’éducation transforme les vies, les économies et les sociétés.

Mais nous savons aussi qu’il nous faut transformer l’éducation.

Car l’éducation traverse une crise profonde.

Au lieu de nous rapprocher, l’éducation est en train de devenir une source de grande division.

Dans les pays pauvres, 70 % des enfants de 10 ans sont incapables de lire un texte élémentaire.

Soit ils sont déscolarisés, soit ils vont à l’école mais apprennent à peine.

Même dans les pays développés, les systèmes éducatifs creusent souvent les inégalités au lieu de les réduire, et ce de génération en génération.

Les riches ont accès aux meilleures ressources, écoles et universités, ce qui leur permet d’obtenir les meilleurs emplois, tandis que les pauvres – en particulier les filles – rencontrent d’énormes obstacles pour obtenir les qualifications qui pourraient changer leur vie.

Les personnes déplacées et les étudiants handicapés se heurtent aux obstacles les plus importants.

La pandémie de COVID-19 a eu des effets dévastateurs sur l’apprentissage dans le monde entier, et a porté un coup aux progrès réalisés concernant l’Objectif de développement durable no 4.

Mais la crise de l’éducation a commencé bien avant cela – et elle est bien plus profonde.

Le carnet de notes de la Commission internationale sur Les futurs de l’éducation est clair : les systèmes éducatifs ne sont pas à la hauteur.

Ils laissent tomber les élèves et les sociétés, en favorisant l’apprentissage par cœur et la course à la meilleure note.

Trop souvent, les programmes d’étude sont dépassés et limités.

Les systèmes éducatifs ne laissent pratiquement aucune place à l’apprentissage tout au long de la vie.

Les enseignants ne sont pas assez formés, ne sont pas appréciés à leur juste valeur et sont sous-payés.

La fracture numérique pénalise les étudiants pauvres.

Et le fossé du financement de l’éducation est plus large que jamais.

Ce n’est pas en nous contentant de faire plus, plus vite ou mieux que nous mettrons fin à cette crise.

L’heure est venue de transformer les systèmes éducatifs.

Mesdames et Messieurs les dirigeants,

Vos concitoyens, les jeunes du monde entier et les générations futures vous demandent de faire preuve d’ambition et de détermination.

Une nouvelle conception de l’éducation au XXIe siècle est en train de prendre forme.

Avant toute chose, un enseignement de qualité est essentiel au développement de l’apprenant individuel tout au long de sa vie.

Il doit l’aider à apprendre à apprendre, en privilégiant le règlement des problèmes et la collaboration.

Il doit lui offrir les bases de l’apprentissage, que ce soit la lecture, l’écriture et les mathématiques mais aussi des compétences scientifiques, numériques, sociales et émotionnelles.

Il doit aussi donner aux étudiants les moyens de s’adapter à l’évolution rapide du monde du travail.

Il doit être accessible à chacun et à chacune dès son plus jeune âge et tout au long de la vie.

Enfin, il doit nous aider à apprendre à vivre et à travailler ensemble, à nous comprendre et à comprendre nos responsabilités les uns envers les autres et envers notre planète.

À l’heure de la mésinformation galopante, du déni climatique et des attaques portées aux droits humains, nous avons besoin de systèmes éducatifs qui distinguent les faits des théories du complot, inculquent le respect de la science et célèbrent l’humanité dans toute sa diversité.

Pour faire de cet idéal une réalité, permettez-moi d’attirer votre attention sur cinq grandes questions.

Tout d’abord, nous devons protéger le droit à une éducation de qualité pour toutes et tous, en particulier les jeunes filles. Partout.

Les écoles doivent être ouvertes à tous les enfants, sans discrimination aucune.

Partout sur la planète, il nous faut rattraper les années d’apprentissage perdues à cause de la pandémie.

Préserver une éducation de qualité pour toutes et tous, cela veut dire remédier à la crise qui frappe l’apprentissage des savoirs fondamentaux, et cela tout au long de la vie.

Dans les endroits en proie à de graves difficultés, cela veut dire aussi privilégier l’éducation.

Je voudrais profiter de cette tribune pour lancer un appel aux autorités afghanes : levez immédiatement toutes les restrictions qui entravent l’accès des filles à l’enseignement secondaire.

L’éducation des filles est l’un des meilleurs moyens d’assurer la paix, la sécurité et le développement durable et ce, partout dans le monde.

En deuxième lieu, les enseignants sont la force vive des systèmes éducatifs.

Nous devons nous intéresser de nouveau à leurs rôles et à leurs compétences.

Aujourd’hui, les enseignants doivent être en classe des facilitateurs : ils doivent apprendre à apprendre et ne pas se contenter de transmettre des connaissances toutes faites.

Il nous faut remédier à la pénurie mondiale d’enseignants et chercher à améliorer leur niveau, en revalorisant le métier qu’ils exercent et garantissant de bonnes conditions de travail et puissent se former et se perfectionner tout au long de leur carrière et recevoir un salaire adéquat.  En troisième lieu, les écoles doivent être des espaces sûrs et propices à l’épanouissement, où la violence, la stigmatisation et le harcèlement scolaire n’ont pas leur place.

Les systèmes éducatifs doivent promouvoir la santé physique et mentale de tous les élèves, y compris leur santé sexuelle et reproductive.

La communauté internationale a un rôle crucial à jouer. Je demande aux partenaires de développement d’annuler les réductions d’aide et de consacrer au moins 15 % de l’aide publique au développement à l’éducation.

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How Social Media is Reshaping Today’s Education System

by Lori Wade

There’s no denying that, ever since social networks and social media made way into our lives, everything is different. Beginning with the way we socialize, interact, plan for parties or even how often we go out. We won’t go into a debate regarding the ethical aspects of the way Social Media is influencing our lives. Instead, this article proposes to focus on the numerous ways in which social media is changing the way the education system works. So, stay tuned to find out what effects does social networking have on the way our children are educated both at school and outside of it.

Empowering Effects Starting from elementary school up until university graduation, social media has the role to empower parents, students and teachers to use new ways of sharing information and build a community. Statistics show that 96% of the students that have internet access are using at least one social network . What’s even more extraordinary is that, even though some of the students use the social networks for entertaining and other purposes, there are a lot of them that actually use it to promote a lot of positive and useful activities. From finding a summer internship, promoting a success story about how to win the student-loan battle or collaborate on international projects, everything is made possible.

Implementation in Schools? When it comes to social media, schools tend to adopt different positions. It’s a general consensus that they’re useful when it comes to sharing information or organizing the school tasks. And at the same time, the social networking is blamed for the lack of attention in students during classes.

But an increasing trend of adopting social media in school is starting to show. And since students already devote a lot of time for social media and connecting with others outside school hours, why not do it during school as well?

It’s a matter of practicability, really, because it makes perfect sense to use the online universe to communicate with your students since they’re already there most of the time. There’s no need for another case study about the usage of social media in schools. You simply need to walk through the hallways of any school or colleague to see kids of all ages totally immersed in their smartphones. Browsing their news feed, sharing photos on Instagram of sending Snapchat messages has become a part of their daily routine.

How Can Teachers Penetrate the Online World? Moodle and Blackboard are just two examples of learning management system that involves online learning for more than 10 years now. Slowly but steady, such systems will lead to the actual implementation of social media within classrooms. And the best tool available for teachers is social media itself. Only by being open-minded and using the technology themselves will they be able to really reach out to students.

“ The best teachers I’ve ever had have used technology to enhance the learning process, including Facebook pages and events for upcoming projects” – Katie Benmar, Freshman

  As the above statement emphasizes, students also react very positively when a teacher is willing to use their methods and adapt them as part of the educational process. And it makes perfect sense since a homework has a certain strictness about it, but an online chat discussing a certain book gives students the ability to open up and share their opinions.

Daring Teachers Of course, the examples of teachers already implementing social media in classes are far numerous that we can know of, however, there are a few that did such a great job that their students almost made them viral. For example, a biology teacher from Bergen County proposed a challenge to his students. They had to debate over the subject of meiosis on Twitter by using a specific hashtag. This is a great opportunity for students to have fun and learn at the same time. As you need to know your meiosis in order to compress it into 140 characters.

“ We live in a digital ecosystem, and it is vital that educational institutions adapt ”

Carla Dawson – Digital Marketing Professor at the Catholic University of Cordoba

Professor Dawson really has a valid point there as history showed us all that, no matter how strong the resistance, technological progress and new trends will eventually become a standard. Of course, this applies to developed countries that already have a well-structured traditional educational system. It’s a totally different situation when it comes to developing countries that are still struggling to find their way.

A Stronger Community Through Social Media The benefits of social media in the education process doesn’t have to stop at the teacher-student relationship. There are a lot of other benefits that can be extracted from the use of social networking at higher levels as well. For example, principals or administrators can find a new way to integrate social media. Like sharing school news via social networks, holding online meeting with the parents or even starting fundraising for different projects.

And social media can quickly become the only channel of communication since we’re living fast-paced lives, parents are usually busy with work and cannot attend school meetings. But this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in touch with events or be able to check on their kids every once in awhile. Just like in every other field, communication is vital and if it can be done easily with the help of social media, why not go for it?

It may not be criteria just yet, but soon enough questions like ‘Does this school have a Facebook page?’ could become just as important as the things that parents are asking right now. Like, how well equipped the library is or what are the optional classes their child can be part of.

Conclusions The bottom line is that social media is a big part of our day to day life and there’s no point of keeping it away from the education process. School, college and university staff should be encouraged to make use of technology for student and parent communication. This could easily turn into an argumentative essay topic for college . But the benefits are obvious, starting with healthier parent-teacher relationships and all the way to permanently changing the way our children will learn.

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What Students Are Saying About How to Improve American Education

An international exam shows that American 15-year-olds are stagnant in reading and math. Teenagers told us what’s working and what’s not in the American education system.

By The Learning Network

Earlier this month, the Program for International Student Assessment announced that the performance of American teenagers in reading and math has been stagnant since 2000 . Other recent studies revealed that two-thirds of American children were not proficient readers , and that the achievement gap in reading between high and low performers is widening.

We asked students to weigh in on these findings and to tell us their suggestions for how they would improve the American education system.

Our prompt received nearly 300 comments. This was clearly a subject that many teenagers were passionate about. They offered a variety of suggestions on how they felt schools could be improved to better teach and prepare students for life after graduation.

While we usually highlight three of our most popular writing prompts in our Current Events Conversation , this week we are only rounding up comments for this one prompt so we can honor the many students who wrote in.

Please note: Student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear as they were originally submitted.

Put less pressure on students.

One of the biggest flaws in the American education system is the amount of pressure that students have on them to do well in school, so they can get into a good college. Because students have this kind of pressure on them they purely focus on doing well rather than actually learning and taking something valuable away from what they are being taught.

— Jordan Brodsky, Danvers, MA

As a Freshman and someone who has a tough home life, I can agree that this is one of the main causes as to why I do poorly on some things in school. I have been frustrated about a lot that I am expected to learn in school because they expect us to learn so much information in such little time that we end up forgetting about half of it anyway. The expectations that I wish that my teachers and school have of me is that I am only human and that I make mistakes. Don’t make me feel even worse than I already am with telling me my low test scores and how poorly I’m doing in classes.

— Stephanie Cueva, King Of Prussia, PA

I stay up well after midnight every night working on homework because it is insanely difficult to balance school life, social life, and extracurriculars while making time for family traditions. While I don’t feel like making school easier is the one true solution to the stress students are placed under, I do feel like a transition to a year-round schedule would be a step in the right direction. That way, teachers won’t be pressured into stuffing a large amount of content into a small amount of time, and students won’t feel pressured to keep up with ungodly pacing.

— Jacob Jarrett, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

In my school, we don’t have the best things, there are holes in the walls, mice, and cockroaches everywhere. We also have a lot of stress so there is rarely time for us to study and prepare for our tests because we constantly have work to do and there isn’t time for us to relax and do the things that we enjoy. We sleep late and can’t ever focus, but yet that’s our fault and that we are doing something wrong. School has become a place where we just do work, stress, and repeat but there has been nothing changed. We can’t learn what we need to learn because we are constantly occupied with unnecessary work that just pulls us back.

— Theodore Loshi, Masterman School

As a student of an American educational center let me tell you, it is horrible. The books are out dated, the bathrooms are hideous, stress is ever prevalent, homework seems never ending, and worst of all, the seemingly impossible feat of balancing school life, social life, and family life is abominable. The only way you could fix it would be to lessen the load dumped on students and give us a break.

— Henry Alley, Hoggard High School, Wilmington NC

Use less technology in the classroom (…or more).

People my age have smaller vocabularies, and if they don’t know a word, they just quickly look it up online instead of learning and internalizing it. The same goes for facts and figures in other subjects; don’t know who someone was in history class? Just look ‘em up and read their bio. Don’t know how to balance a chemical equation? The internet knows. Can’t solve a math problem by hand? Just sneak out the phone calculator.

My largest grievance with technology and learning has more to do with the social and psychological aspects, though. We’ve decreased ability to meaningfully communicate, and we want everything — things, experiences, gratification — delivered to us at Amazon Prime speed. Interactions and experiences have become cheap and 2D because we see life through a screen.

— Grace Robertson, Hoggard High School Wilmington, NC

Kids now a days are always on technology because they are heavily dependent on it- for the purpose of entertainment and education. Instead of pondering or thinking for ourselves, our first instinct is to google and search for the answers without giving it any thought. This is a major factor in why I think American students tests scores haven’t been improving because no one wants to take time and think about questions, instead they want to find answers as fast as they can just so they can get the assignment/ project over with.

— Ema Thorakkal, Glenbard West HS IL

There needs to be a healthier balance between pen and paper work and internet work and that balance may not even be 50:50. I personally find myself growing as a student more when I am writing down my assignments and planning out my day on paper instead of relying on my phone for it. Students now are being taught from preschool about technology and that is damaging their growth and reading ability. In my opinion as well as many of my peers, a computer can never beat a book in terms of comprehension.

— Ethan, Pinkey, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

Learning needs to be more interesting. Not many people like to study from their textbooks because there’s not much to interact with. I think that instead of studying from textbooks, more interactive activities should be used instead. Videos, websites, games, whatever might interest students more. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use textbooks, I’m just saying that we should have a combination of both textbooks and technology to make learning more interesting in order for students to learn more.

— Vivina Dong, J. R. Masterman

Prepare students for real life.

At this point, it’s not even the grades I’m worried about. It feels like once we’ve graduated high school, we’ll be sent out into the world clueless and unprepared. I know many college students who have no idea what they’re doing, as though they left home to become an adult but don’t actually know how to be one.

The most I’ve gotten out of school so far was my Civics & Economics class, which hardly even touched what I’d actually need to know for the real world. I barely understand credit and they expect me to be perfectly fine living alone a year from now. We need to learn about real life, things that can actually benefit us. An art student isn’t going to use Biology and Trigonometry in life. Exams just seem so pointless in the long run. Why do we have to dedicate our high school lives studying equations we’ll never use? Why do exams focusing on pointless topics end up determining our entire future?

— Eliana D, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

I think that the American education system can be improved my allowing students to choose the classes that they wish to take or classes that are beneficial for their future. Students aren’t really learning things that can help them in the future such as basic reading and math.

— Skye Williams, Sarasota, Florida

I am frustrated about what I’m supposed to learn in school. Most of the time, I feel like what I’m learning will not help me in life. I am also frustrated about how my teachers teach me and what they expect from me. Often, teachers will give me information and expect me to memorize it for a test without teaching me any real application.

— Bella Perrotta, Kent Roosevelt High School

We divide school time as though the class itself is the appetizer and the homework is the main course. Students get into the habit of preparing exclusively for the homework, further separating the main ideas of school from the real world. At this point, homework is given out to prepare the students for … more homework, rather than helping students apply their knowledge to the real world.

— Daniel Capobianco, Danvers High School

Eliminate standardized tests.

Standardized testing should honestly be another word for stress. I know that I stress over every standardized test I have taken and so have most of my peers. I mean they are scary, it’s like when you take these tests you bring your No. 2 pencil and an impending fail.

— Brennan Stabler, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

Personally, for me I think standardized tests have a negative impact on my education, taking test does not actually test my knowledge — instead it forces me to memorize facts that I will soon forget.

— Aleena Khan, Glenbard West HS Glen Ellyn, IL

Teachers will revolve their whole days on teaching a student how to do well on a standardized test, one that could potentially impact the final score a student receives. That is not learning. That is learning how to memorize and become a robot that regurgitates answers instead of explaining “Why?” or “How?” that answer was found. If we spent more time in school learning the answers to those types of questions, we would become a nation where students are humans instead of a number.

— Carter Osborn, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

In private school, students have smaller class sizes and more resources for field trips, computers, books, and lab equipment. They also get more “hand holding” to guarantee success, because parents who pay tuition expect results. In public school, the learning is up to you. You have to figure stuff out yourself, solve problems, and advocate for yourself. If you fail, nobody cares. It takes grit to do well. None of this is reflected in a standardized test score.

— William Hudson, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

Give teachers more money and support.

I have always been told “Don’t be a teacher, they don’t get paid hardly anything.” or “How do you expect to live off of a teachers salary, don’t go into that profession.” As a young teen I am being told these things, the future generation of potential teachers are being constantly discouraged because of the money they would be getting paid. Education in Americans problems are very complicated, and there is not one big solution that can fix all of them at once, but little by little we can create a change.

— Lilly Smiley, Hoggard High School

We cannot expect our grades to improve when we give teachers a handicap with poor wages and low supplies. It doesn’t allow teachers to unleash their full potential for educating students. Alas, our government makes teachers work with their hands tied. No wonder so many teachers are quitting their jobs for better careers. Teachers will shape the rest of their students’ lives. But as of now, they can only do the bare minimum.

— Jeffery Austin, Hoggard High School

The answer to solving the American education crisis is simple. We need to put education back in the hands of the teachers. The politicians and the government needs to step back and let the people who actually know what they are doing and have spent a lifetime doing it decide how to teach. We wouldn’t let a lawyer perform heart surgery or construction workers do our taxes, so why let the people who win popularity contests run our education systems?

— Anders Olsen, Hoggard High School, Wilmington NC

Make lessons more engaging.

I’m someone who struggles when all the teacher does is say, “Go to page X” and asks you to read it. Simply reading something isn’t as effective for me as a teacher making it interactive, maybe giving a project out or something similar. A textbook doesn’t answer all my questions, but a qualified teacher that takes their time does. When I’m challenged by something, I can always ask a good teacher and I can expect an answer that makes sense to me. But having a teacher that just brushes off questions doesn’t help me. I’ve heard of teachers where all they do is show the class movies. At first, that sounds amazing, but you don’t learn anything that can benefit you on a test.

— Michael Huang, JR Masterman

I’ve struggled in many classes, as of right now it’s government. What is making this class difficult is that my teacher doesn’t really teach us anything, all he does is shows us videos and give us papers that we have to look through a textbook to find. The problem with this is that not everyone has this sort of learning style. Then it doesn’t help that the papers we do, we never go over so we don’t even know if the answers are right.

— S Weatherford, Kent Roosevelt, OH

The classes in which I succeed in most are the ones where the teachers are very funny. I find that I struggle more in classes where the teachers are very strict. I think this is because I love laughing. Two of my favorite teachers are very lenient and willing to follow the classes train of thought.

— Jonah Smith Posner, J.R. Masterman

Create better learning environments.

Whenever they are introduced to school at a young age, they are convinced by others that school is the last place they should want to be. Making school a more welcoming place for students could better help them be attentive and also be more open minded when walking down the halls of their own school, and eventually improve their test scores as well as their attitude while at school.

— Hart P., Bryant High School

Students today feel voiceless because they are punished when they criticize the school system and this is a problem because this allows the school to block out criticism that can be positive leaving it no room to grow. I hope that in the near future students can voice their opinion and one day change the school system for the better.

— Nico Spadavecchia, Glenbard West Highschool Glen Ellyn IL

The big thing that I have struggled with is the class sizes due to overcrowding. It has made it harder to be able to get individual help and be taught so I completely understand what was going on. Especially in math it builds on itself so if you don’t understand the first thing you learn your going to be very lost down the road. I would go to my math teacher in the morning and there would be 12 other kids there.

— Skyla Madison, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

The biggest issue facing our education system is our children’s lack of motivation. People don’t want to learn. Children hate school. We despise homework. We dislike studying. One of the largest indicators of a child’s success academically is whether or not they meet a third grade reading level by the third grade, but children are never encouraged to want to learn. There are a lot of potential remedies for the education system. Paying teachers more, giving schools more funding, removing distractions from the classroom. All of those things are good, but, at the end of the day, the solution is to fundamentally change the way in which we operate.

Support students’ families.

I say one of the biggest problems is the support of families and teachers. I have heard many success stories, and a common element of this story is the unwavering support from their family, teachers, supervisors, etc. Many people need support to be pushed to their full potential, because some people do not have the will power to do it on their own. So, if students lived in an environment where education was supported and encouraged; than their children would be more interested in improving and gaining more success in school, than enacting in other time wasting hobbies that will not help their future education.

— Melanie, Danvers

De-emphasize grades.

I wish that tests were graded based on how much effort you put it and not the grade itself. This would help students with stress and anxiety about tests and it would cause students to put more effort into their work. Anxiety around school has become such a dilemma that students are taking their own life from the stress around schoolwork. You are told that if you don’t make straight A’s your life is over and you won’t have a successful future.

— Lilah Pate, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

I personally think that there are many things wrong with the American education system. Everyone is so worried about grades and test scores. People believe that those are the only thing that represents a student. If you get a bad grade on something you start believing that you’re a bad student. GPA doesn’t measure a students’ intelligence or ability to learn. At young ages students stop wanting to come to school and learn. Standardized testing starts and students start to lose their creativity.

— Andrew Gonthier, Hoggard High School in Wilmington, NC

Praise for great teachers

Currently, I’m in a math class that changed my opinion of math. Math class just used to be a “meh” for me. But now, my teacher teachers in a way that is so educational and at the same time very amusing and phenomenal. I am proud to be in such a class and with such a teacher. She has changed the way I think about math it has definitely improve my math skills. Now, whenever I have math, I am so excited to learn new things!

— Paulie Sobol, J.R Masterman

At the moment, the one class that I really feel supported in is math. My math teachers Mrs. Siu and Ms. Kamiya are very encouraging of mistakes and always are willing to help me when I am struggling. We do lots of classwork and discussions and we have access to amazing online programs and technology. My teacher uses Software called OneNote and she does all the class notes on OneNote so that we can review the class material at home. Ms. Kamiya is very patient and is great at explaining things. Because they are so accepting of mistakes and confusion it makes me feel very comfortable and I am doing very well in math.

— Jayden Vance, J.R. Masterman

One of the classes that made learning easier for me was sixth-grade math. My teacher allowed us to talk to each other while we worked on math problems. Talking to the other students in my class helped me learn a lot quicker. We also didn’t work out of a textbook. I feel like it is harder for me to understand something if I just read it out of a textbook. Seventh-grade math also makes learning a lot easier for me. Just like in sixth-grade math, we get to talk to others while solving a problem. I like that when we don’t understand a question, our teacher walks us through it and helps us solve it.

— Grace Moan, J R Masterman

My 2nd grade class made learning easy because of the way my teacher would teach us. My teacher would give us a song we had to remember to learn nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, etc. which helped me remember their definitions until I could remember it without the song. She had little key things that helped us learn math because we all wanted to be on a harder key than each other. She also sang us our spelling words, and then the selling of that word from the song would help me remember it.

— Brycinea Stratton, J.R. Masterman

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Harvard Staff Writer

Paul Reville says COVID-19 school closures have turned a spotlight on inequities and other shortcomings

This is part of our Coronavirus Update series in which Harvard specialists in epidemiology, infectious disease, economics, politics, and other disciplines offer insights into what the latest developments in the COVID-19 outbreak may bring.

As former secretary of education for Massachusetts, Paul Reville is keenly aware of the financial and resource disparities between districts, schools, and individual students. The school closings due to coronavirus concerns have turned a spotlight on those problems and how they contribute to educational and income inequality in the nation. The Gazette talked to Reville, the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education , about the effects of the pandemic on schools and how the experience may inspire an overhaul of the American education system.

Paul Reville

GAZETTE: Schools around the country have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Do these massive school closures have any precedent in the history of the United States?

REVILLE: We’ve certainly had school closures in particular jurisdictions after a natural disaster, like in New Orleans after the hurricane. But on this scale? No, certainly not in my lifetime. There were substantial closings in many places during the 1918 Spanish Flu, some as long as four months, but not as widespread as those we’re seeing today. We’re in uncharted territory.

GAZETTE: What lessons did school districts around the country learn from school closures in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and other similar school closings?

REVILLE:   I think the lessons we’ve learned are that it’s good [for school districts] to have a backup system, if they can afford it. I was talking recently with folks in a district in New Hampshire where, because of all the snow days they have in the wintertime, they had already developed a backup online learning system. That made the transition, in this period of school closure, a relatively easy one for them to undertake. They moved seamlessly to online instruction.

Most of our big systems don’t have this sort of backup. Now, however, we’re not only going to have to construct a backup to get through this crisis, but we’re going to have to develop new, permanent systems, redesigned to meet the needs which have been so glaringly exposed in this crisis. For example, we have always had large gaps in students’ learning opportunities after school, weekends, and in the summer. Disadvantaged students suffer the consequences of those gaps more than affluent children, who typically have lots of opportunities to fill in those gaps. I’m hoping that we can learn some things through this crisis about online delivery of not only instruction, but an array of opportunities for learning and support. In this way, we can make the most of the crisis to help redesign better systems of education and child development.

GAZETTE: Is that one of the silver linings of this public health crisis?

REVILLE: In politics we say, “Never lose the opportunity of a crisis.” And in this situation, we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all of our children fairly. There are things we can learn in the messiness of adapting through this crisis, which has revealed profound disparities in children’s access to support and opportunities. We should be asking: How do we make our school, education, and child-development systems more individually responsive to the needs of our students? Why not construct a system that meets children where they are and gives them what they need inside and outside of school in order to be successful? Let’s take this opportunity to end the “one size fits all” factory model of education.

GAZETTE: How seriously are students going to be set back by not having formal instruction for at least two months, if not more?

“The best that can come of this is a new paradigm shift in terms of the way in which we look at education, because children’s well-being and success depend on more than just schooling,” Paul Reville said of the current situation. “We need to look holistically, at the entirety of children’s lives.”

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard file photo

REVILLE: The first thing to consider is that it’s going to be a variable effect. We tend to regard our school systems uniformly, but actually schools are widely different in their operations and impact on children, just as our students themselves are very different from one another. Children come from very different backgrounds and have very different resources, opportunities, and support outside of school. Now that their entire learning lives, as well as their actual physical lives, are outside of school, those differences and disparities come into vivid view. Some students will be fine during this crisis because they’ll have high-quality learning opportunities, whether it’s formal schooling or informal homeschooling of some kind coupled with various enrichment opportunities. Conversely, other students won’t have access to anything of quality, and as a result will be at an enormous disadvantage. Generally speaking, the most economically challenged in our society will be the most vulnerable in this crisis, and the most advantaged are most likely to survive it without losing too much ground.

GAZETTE: Schools in Massachusetts are closed until May 4. Some people are saying they should remain closed through the end of the school year. What’s your take on this?

REVILLE: That should be a medically based judgment call that will be best made several weeks from now. If there’s evidence to suggest that students and teachers can safely return to school, then I’d say by all means. However, that seems unlikely.

GAZETTE: The digital divide between students has become apparent as schools have increasingly turned to online instruction. What can school systems do to address that gap?

REVILLE: Arguably, this is something that schools should have been doing a long time ago, opening up the whole frontier of out-of-school learning by virtue of making sure that all students have access to the technology and the internet they need in order to be connected in out-of-school hours. Students in certain school districts don’t have those affordances right now because often the school districts don’t have the budget to do this, but federal, state, and local taxpayers are starting to see the imperative for coming together to meet this need.

Twenty-first century learning absolutely requires technology and internet. We can’t leave this to chance or the accident of birth. All of our children should have the technology they need to learn outside of school. Some communities can take it for granted that their children will have such tools. Others who have been unable to afford to level the playing field are now finding ways to step up. Boston, for example, has bought 20,000 Chromebooks and is creating hotspots around the city where children and families can go to get internet access. That’s a great start but, in the long run, I think we can do better than that. At the same time, many communities still need help just to do what Boston has done for its students.

Communities and school districts are going to have to adapt to get students on a level playing field. Otherwise, many students will continue to be at a huge disadvantage. We can see this playing out now as our lower-income and more heterogeneous school districts struggle over whether to proceed with online instruction when not everyone can access it. Shutting down should not be an option. We have to find some middle ground, and that means the state and local school districts are going to have to act urgently and nimbly to fill in the gaps in technology and internet access.

GAZETTE : What can parents can do to help with the homeschooling of their children in the current crisis?

“In this situation, we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all of our children fairly.”

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REVILLE: School districts can be helpful by giving parents guidance about how to constructively use this time. The default in our education system is now homeschooling. Virtually all parents are doing some form of homeschooling, whether they want to or not. And the question is: What resources, support, or capacity do they have to do homeschooling effectively? A lot of parents are struggling with that.

And again, we have widely variable capacity in our families and school systems. Some families have parents home all day, while other parents have to go to work. Some school systems are doing online classes all day long, and the students are fully engaged and have lots of homework, and the parents don’t need to do much. In other cases, there is virtually nothing going on at the school level, and everything falls to the parents. In the meantime, lots of organizations are springing up, offering different kinds of resources such as handbooks and curriculum outlines, while many school systems are coming up with guidance documents to help parents create a positive learning environment in their homes by engaging children in challenging activities so they keep learning.

There are lots of creative things that can be done at home. But the challenge, of course, for parents is that they are contending with working from home, and in other cases, having to leave home to do their jobs. We have to be aware that families are facing myriad challenges right now. If we’re not careful, we risk overloading families. We have to strike a balance between what children need and what families can do, and how you maintain some kind of work-life balance in the home environment. Finally, we must recognize the equity issues in the forced overreliance on homeschooling so that we avoid further disadvantaging the already disadvantaged.

GAZETTE: What has been the biggest surprise for you thus far?

REVILLE: One that’s most striking to me is that because schools are closed, parents and the general public have become more aware than at any time in my memory of the inequities in children’s lives outside of school. Suddenly we see front-page coverage about food deficits, inadequate access to health and mental health, problems with housing stability, and access to educational technology and internet. Those of us in education know these problems have existed forever. What has happened is like a giant tidal wave that came and sucked the water off the ocean floor, revealing all these uncomfortable realities that had been beneath the water from time immemorial. This newfound public awareness of pervasive inequities, I hope, will create a sense of urgency in the public domain. We need to correct for these inequities in order for education to realize its ambitious goals. We need to redesign our systems of child development and education. The most obvious place to start for schools is working on equitable access to educational technology as a way to close the digital-learning gap.

GAZETTE: You’ve talked about some concrete changes that should be considered to level the playing field. But should we be thinking broadly about education in some new way?

REVILLE: The best that can come of this is a new paradigm shift in terms of the way in which we look at education, because children’s well-being and success depend on more than just schooling. We need to look holistically, at the entirety of children’s lives. In order for children to come to school ready to learn, they need a wide array of essential supports and opportunities outside of school. And we haven’t done a very good job of providing these. These education prerequisites go far beyond the purview of school systems, but rather are the responsibility of communities and society at large. In order to learn, children need equal access to health care, food, clean water, stable housing, and out-of-school enrichment opportunities, to name just a few preconditions. We have to reconceptualize the whole job of child development and education, and construct systems that meet children where they are and give them what they need, both inside and outside of school, in order for all of them to have a genuine opportunity to be successful.

Within this coronavirus crisis there is an opportunity to reshape American education. The only precedent in our field was when the Sputnik went up in 1957, and suddenly, Americans became very worried that their educational system wasn’t competitive with that of the Soviet Union. We felt vulnerable, like our defenses were down, like a nation at risk. And we decided to dramatically boost the involvement of the federal government in schooling and to increase and improve our scientific curriculum. We decided to look at education as an important factor in human capital development in this country. Again, in 1983, the report “Nation at Risk” warned of a similar risk: Our education system wasn’t up to the demands of a high-skills/high-knowledge economy.

We tried with our education reforms to build a 21st-century education system, but the results of that movement have been modest. We are still a nation at risk. We need another paradigm shift, where we look at our goals and aspirations for education, which are summed up in phrases like “No Child Left Behind,” “Every Student Succeeds,” and “All Means All,” and figure out how to build a system that has the capacity to deliver on that promise of equity and excellence in education for all of our students, and all means all. We’ve got that opportunity now. I hope we don’t fail to take advantage of it in a misguided rush to restore the status quo.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

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The power of education

• Save the Children

Speech given by Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt at the Education World Forum on 23 January 2017

Education is the most empowering force in the world. It creates knowledge, builds confidence, and breaks down barriers to opportunity.

For children, it is their key to open the door to a better life.

However, it is a sad reality of our world today that millions of children will never receive this key.

They are destined to stay locked in cycles of disadvantage and poverty.

I think Malala described this heart-wrenching situation best when she said:

“In some parts of the world, students are going to school every day. It’s their normal life. But in other parts of the world, we are starving for education … its like a precious gift. Its like a diamond”.

This cannot continue.

All children deserve to receive the ‘precious gift’ of education. In fact, we have promised to give it to them. It is time to deliver.

Under the Sustainable Development Goals, the blue print for progress the whole world has agreed, we are committed to give all children an inclusive and quality education by 2030.

To get the 263 million children currently out of school, back in.

To make sure the 130 million children currently reaching Grade 4 without learning basic reading and maths skills, become masters of both.

To stop girls being excluded, or married off.

Right now, one girl under 15 is married every 7 seconds. They should be starting a new year of school, not starting a new life of disadvantage.

I know this sounds a bit bleak. But we have to face up to the fact that we are in the midst of an education crisis and are running well behind on our promise to the world’s children.

I have just returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos where I gave world leaders this same message.

However, instead of acting fast to address this crisis, our efforts are slowing down. Development dollars spent on education have declined in the past decade — from 13 per cent to 10 per cent since 2002.

The challenge is also not getting any easier. Two billion jobs will be lost to automation by 2050. Access to quality education will therefore be even more critical to prepare young people for the challenges of a changing world.

If we continue with our glacial pace of action, up to half of the world’s 1.6 billion children will still be out of school or failing to learn by 2030, and we would need an extra 50 years to reach our global education goals.

Yet, as we face up to this crisis, we should not be tempted to despair.

We can turn things around if we are prepared to step up now.

I am proud to be part of group doing just that, the Education Commission. We are a group of government, business and cultural leaders who have produced a roadmap for how we can live up to the education promise we have made under the global goals.

A vision for how to create a Learning Generation.

It will not be easy to achieve. But, it can be done.

We know this is possible because a quarter of the world’s countries are already on the right path.

This top 25 per cent are already delivering. They are improving their education systems fast and equipping their children with the skills they need for the future.

What we have to do now is focus more effort on the remaining 75 per cent of countries that are not yet hitting the mark.

In these countries, we have to dramatically scale up investment in education systems to improve both the availability of education, but just as importantly, education quality.

To achieve this, the Education Commission report calls for a Financing Compact. The Financing Compact means that countries commit to invest and reform.

In return, the international community offers leadership and education finance, and both are held accountable for their commitment.

To fulfil the compact, countries need to take on four education transformations.

First, performance. This is about putting results front and centre. Successful education systems must invest in what works.

Second, innovation. We must develop new and creative approaches. Education systems must innovate rather than just replicate.

Third, inclusion. We must reach every last child. We will not close the global learning gap unless leaders take steps to include and support those at greatest risk of being out of school. The poor, the discriminated against, girls, and those facing multiple disadvantages.

And fourth, finance. We need to mobilize more money and ensure that we spend it wisely.

Total spending on education must increase steadily from $1.2 to 3 trillion by 2030 across all low- and middle-income countries. The 75 per cent that are falling behind.

This includes mobilising more domestic resources for education. Public spending on education must rise in these countries from 4 per cent to 5.8 per cent.

And by mobilising more support from the international community — governments, financial institutions, business and philanthropists.

International finance needs to increase from today’s estimated $16 billion per year to $89 billion per year by 2030.

These are certainly huge amounts of money.

But we must not forget that by investing now, we will also create huge benefits.

In developing countries, $1 dollar invested in an additional year of schooling gives back $10 back in economic benefits.

What a rate of return!

It gets even better when you think about the role that education can play in empowering girls.

If we close the gender gap by 2030, and education is a big part of this, we are looking at benefits to the global economy of $25 trillion. That is truly a huge number. It makes the upfront investments needed seem small.

And there are other important benefits to children that you cannot put a price on.

Education equals better lives. Access to decent work, improved health and life outcomes, and the dignity that comes from the ability to know and stand up for your human rights.

In 2017, we at the Commission are already taking the first steps to bring our vision of a learning generation into reality.

Two steps we are taking include:

First, advocating for the establishment of a new development bank for education. One that could potentially mobilize $20 billion or more annually by 2030, up from $3.5 billion today.

Second, kick starting a Pioneer Country Initiative, led by former President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete. Work has already commenced in Uganda and Malawi with other countries joining in soon.

Under this initiative, the Commission will work closely with the leadership of pioneer countries to push education up to the top of their domestic priority pile.

Leaders will undertake needed reforms, and invest more resources in the right places. The commission will then act as a bridge to international financing institutions, to attract even more resources from outside. By working in this way, we can trigger virtuous cycles of reform, investment and results.

It is my hope, that 2017 is the year that we all finally stand up and prioritise education. At the Commission, we are trying to do our part. However, we cannot do it alone. We need government, business and even individual citizens to step up.

The case for education is indisputable, and we have no time to waste. Millions of children and youth around the world cannot wait any longer.

Please join us in our effort to create the Learning Generation!

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The 10 Education Issues Everybody Should Be Talking About

• Share article

What issues have the potential to define—or re define—education in the year ahead? Is there a next “big thing” that could shift the K-12 experience or conversation?

These were the questions Education Week set out to answer in this second annual “10 Big Ideas in Education” report.

You can read about last year’s ideas here . In 2019, though, things are different.

This year, we asked Education Week reporters to read the tea leaves and analyze what was happening in classrooms, school districts, and legislatures across the country. What insights could reporters offer practitioners for the year ahead?

Some of the ideas here are speculative. Some are warning shots, others more optimistic. But all 10 of them here have one thing in common: They share a sense of urgency.

Accompanied by compelling illustrations and outside perspectives from leading researchers, advocates, and practitioners, this year’s Big Ideas might make you uncomfortable, or seem improbable. The goal was to provoke and empower you as you consider them.

Let us know what you think, and what big ideas matter to your classroom, school, or district. Tweet your comments with #K12BigIdeas .

No. 1: Kids are right. School is boring.

Out-of-school learning is often more meaningful than anything that happens in a classroom, writes Kevin Bushweller, the Executive Editor of EdWeek Market Brief. His essay tackling the relevance gap is accompanied by a Q&A with advice on nurturing, rather than stifling students’ natural curiosity. Read more.

No. 2: Teachers have trust issues. And it’s no wonder why.

Many teachers may have lost faith in the system, says Andrew Ujifusa, but they haven’t lost hope. The Assistant Editor unpacks this year’s outbreak of teacher activism. And read an account from a disaffected educator on how he built a coalition of his own. Read more.

No. 3: Special education is broken.

Forty years since students with disabilities were legally guaranteed a public school education, many still don’t receive the education they deserve, writes Associate Editor Christina A. Samuels. Delve into her argument and hear from a disability civil rights pioneer on how to create an equitable path for students. Read more.

No. 4: Schools are embracing bilingualism, but only for some students.

Staff Writer Corey Mitchell explains the inclusion problem at the heart of bilingual education. His essay includes a perspective from a researcher on dismantling elite bilingualism. Read more.

No. 5: A world without annual testing may be closer than you think.

There’s agreement that we have a dysfunctional standardized-testing system in the United States, Associate Editor Stephen Sawchuk writes. But killing it would come with some serious tradeoffs. Sawchuk’s musing on the alternatives to annual tests is accompanied by an argument for more rigorous classroom assignments by a teacher-practice expert. Read more.

No. 6: There are lessons to be learned from the educational experiences of black students in military families.

Drawing on his personal experience growing up in an Air Force family, Staff Writer Daarel Burnette II highlights emerging research on military-connected students. Learn more about his findings and hear from two researchers on what a new ESSA mandate means for these students. Read more.

No. 7: School segregation is not an intractable American problem.

Racial and economic segregation remains deeply entrenched in American schools. Staff Writer Denisa R. Superville considers the six steps one district is taking to change that. Her analysis is accompanied by an essay from the president of the American Educational Research Association on what is perpetuating education inequality. Read more.

No. 8: Consent doesn’t just belong in sex ed. class. It needs to start a lot earlier.

Assistant Editor Sarah D. Sparks looked at the research on teaching consent and found schools and families do way too little, way too late. Her report is partnered with a researcher’s practical guide to developmentally appropriate consent education. Read more.

No. 9: Education has an innovation problem.

Are education leaders spending too much time chasing the latest tech trends to maintain what they have? Staff Writer Benjamin Herold explores the innovation trap. Two technologists offer three tips for putting maintenance front and center in school management. Read more.

No. 10: There are two powerful forces changing college admissions.

Some colleges are rewriting the admissions script for potential students. Senior Contributing Writer Catherine Gewertz surveys this changing college admissions landscape. Her insights are accompanied by one teacher’s advice for navigating underserved students through the college application process. Read more.

Wait, there’s more.

Want to know what educators really think about innovation? A new Education Week Research Center survey delves into what’s behind the common buzzword for teachers, principals, and district leaders. Take a look at the survey results.

A version of this article appeared in the January 09, 2019 edition of Education Week as What’s on the Horizon for 2019?

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85 Speeches on Modern Education

These Education Presentations Explore New Learning Environments

Speech on Education System in India

3 minutes speech on education system in india.

Good morning one and all present here. I am going to express my views through my Speech on Education system in India. Education can make people easy to lead, but difficult to drive. Also, it makes easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. This is true, that without education a man is a shade better than an animal. Thus true education is the drawing out of the mental faculties and it is essential for leading a happy life.

India has a great heritage of knowledge. For many years, knowledge has been flowing throughout.  Many scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, and other professionals have done many kinds of research. They have made many inventions through education. The Indian education system is undoubtedly one of the oldest education systems in the world.

Current Scenario of Education in India

It is a fact that our education system in India is not the best one. Lack of reforms and improvements are making it quite boring and ineffective. Students are not taking much interest in studies. There are many factors that are leading this problem of students’ disinterest in education.

People are blaming this orthodox education system. The image of studies and education has been made so reflective by the system. Education is more exploration than slogging for passing examinations and tests. However, the current system of education appears to be a burden.

Get the Huge list of 100+ Speech Topics here

Lack of Computer-based Education

The most burdensome aspect of our education system is focusing only on books and paperwork. I just wonder why schools are not making the education system paper-free! Education should be imparted through Computer Assisted techniques in today’s world. All tasks in the education system should be totally computerized.

Improvement in Indian Education System

The schools and teachers must not corrupt the joy-giving pursuit of education by putting unnecessary burdens of unnecessary rules. Teachers must intrigue the students towards the charms of education and learning as well as gaining the knowledge.

Teachers must expose and reveal to the students the thrill involved knowledge imparting process. Classroom learning must be more interesting than a boring experience.

Many policies have been introduced by our government to overcome the drawbacks of our education system. Therefore it is a great beginning. Although, education has come a long way and has still we need to do a lot more in the coming time.

There should be a foolproof system to track students’ commuting to the school. The sensors in the identity cards are capable to send automated SMS to the parents confirming the arrival of their children at the school. Also, teachers must make the learning experience very thrilling at school.

Education is much more charming and intriguing than the temptations of distractions unnecessary. Our education policymakers must look into the problem to make a better system that is more practical and provides hands-on learning to the students.

Thus it is the need of the hour if we have to safeguard our independence. Our country has witnessed how a few thousand Englishmen, had ruled here for over a hundred years. This was due to a lack of a true education system. We should not allow this to happen again, and this is possible only by having a suitable and perfect education system. The true education system would indeed make us master our destiny.

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• Speech on the Education System in India

Introduction to Speech on the Education System in India

Education is a process of learning or teaching new skills or knowledge. Education is mostly provided in schools and universities. Education is very important for the development of the country. It helps in the economic development of the country. Education can change the life of a person. Former president of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is the best example of how education can change the life of a  person. Education if provided properly can change the perspective of people.

Here we have provided a long and short speech on the education system in India and along with that we have also given 10 line pointers about the speech on the education system.

Long Speech on Education System

Good morning to everyone present here. Today I am going to give a small speech on the education system in India. I hope you all learn new things from this speech.

Education is defined as the process of receiving or giving primary knowledge, especially at the school or university level. Education is a significant factor that helps in improving the literacy rate of the country. After Independence, the Indian government has mainly focused on providing education to everyone and for years the government has introduced new plans to improve Indian education.

The Indian education system is mainly divided into four stages namely lower primary for the children between the age of six to ten years, upper primary with children from the age of eleven years to twelve years. High school, in which the children start their school at the age of 13 and end it at 16 and at the age of 17 to 18 they finish their higher secondary school.

The Indian education system is considered to be the oldest among the education systems around the world. In spite of being the oldest, it is not the best. Lack of reforms and improvements makes the Indian education system ineffective and annoying.

From the beginning, the Indian education system is designed for a child to learn from the book and write exams just to get good grades. While it helps in improving the children's reading and writing ability, it does not help in learning the skills required to survive in the world.

We often hear on the news that unemployment in India is increasing day by day and in spite of many graduates having fancy degrees, many of them fail to land a job. So what is the reason for that? The answer is our Education system. The Indian education system is designed for students to score marks and get good grades and repeat the process but it was never designed to teach the students the skills required to survive in this world.

The education and the knowledge we receive from reading various books is unmatchable and I totally agree with that. But while the Indian education system provides theoretical knowledge for the students it is very important to also teach the students how to apply that knowledge practically which many students fail and that is the reason why there is an exponential increase in the unemployment rate in India.

It is the responsibility of the teachers to allow the students to think differently. The teachers should also make the student understand that classroom learning is important and should teach them how to practically apply it. In addition to this the teachers should be open to the idea of learning new things from the students.

Our education system could be improved if important steps are taken. Instead of encouraging students to study for the exam, where they only muggup the textbooks just for the sake of scoring well, more practical knowledge should be given to the students. The education authorities should give the students opportunities to apply the knowledge they have learned in the textbooks practically.

Our educational system should also allow the students to learn about the financial knowledge that would help them in surviving in this world. The education authorities should teach students about budgeting money, saving money, and the ways through which the money could be invested in different assets like stocks, gold, silver, etc. This will help the students to prepare for the future.

According to the United Nations Organization(UNO), India ranks 145 out of 191 in the world for providing education. We are not even in the top 50 in the world. This shows the level of improvement we need to do to update ourselves. If we want our country to grow and move forward we have to start by improving the education we provide for the children. As the saying goes “The children of today are the future of tomorrow”, we should start by updating the Indian education system from the primary level. Instead of only allowing the students to learn theoretical knowledge, the educational authorities should introduce practical methods through which children can apply the knowledge they learned through the books.

If by moderating our education system, we can bring a wave of revolution then we have to do it for the sake of a brighter future. Thank you.

Short Speech on Education System in India

Good morning to everyone present here. Today I am going to give a 3-minute speech on the education system in India and I hope you all get new information from this speech.

Education is defined as the process of learning or teaching new things. Education is mostly provided at the schools or the colleges.

Indian education is considered to be the oldest in the world. It has been involved through centuries and has produced many scholars and great achievers. But as the world changes the education system should also change. But sadly this has not been the case with India. Sadly the education system in India has not changed which leaves room for progress.

The Indian education system is all about reading textbooks to score well in exams and get good grades but it does not teach the students how to apply theoretical knowledge. It teaches the students to only muggle the textbooks and score well in the exams, we need to change this. The Indian education system desperately needs to be modernized and if it does not then the students will now grow in life.

The students should be encouraged to learn new things by the teachers. They should teach the students how to apply theoretical knowledge.

Financial education is also not taught to students in schools. The students should be taught the skills that could help them in making money. Education institutes should teach the students the methods in which money could be invested such as stocks, gold, real estate, etc.

To conclude this speech I want to say that the entire education system teaches the students about “what to know” through textbooks for scoring in exams but it does not allow the students to learn about “what and all they should know”. It is very important that the students should be taught about financial education and this can only be done by only modernizing the entire education system.

10 Lines About the Speech on the Education System

In the Indian education system, the knowledge learned through textbooks is given the most importance.

Education is defined as the process of giving information or receiving it from schools or colleges.

The Indian education system is considered to be one of the oldest in the world.

In spite of being the oldest, it is not the best as there are many loopholes in it.

Indian education is divided into four stages and that is lower primary, upper primary, high school, and higher secondary school.

The students should be allowed to do practical work for the theoretical knowledge they learned through books.

Education costs should be reduced as many people cannot afford education.

The government has given scholarships to students to complete their higher education.

The teachers should encourage students to think differently.

Unemployment in India has increased in spite of many students having a degree. This is because students don’t have enough practical knowledge.

FAQs on Speech on the Education System in India

1. What is the importance of delivering education speech?

We all are aware of the importance of education in our society. Education helps to shape our future and enlighten us about the various aspects of our society. Education helps to diminish the darkness of our minds by illuminating our minds with the light of knowledge.

The purpose of delivering an education speech is to reach a larger audience and make them understand the importance of education in our society and especially for women and children. The purpose of being educated can only be served when the knowledge will help others to get motivated and drive them towards acquiring knowledge and education.

Proper education can reshape our thinking ability and boost the power of thinking rationally. The purpose of education is to make this society safe and ideal for the growth and nourishment of the minds of the children. It can only happen when a larger percentage of the inhabitants of our society will understand the value of education.

Delivering a proper education speech will make the members of our society ponder over the significance of education and the influences it can have on the minds of the future generation. They will understand the value of justice and equality for all the members of our society and will help each other to make society a gender-neutral platform.

2. What are the points that should be included in an education speech?

An educational speech should be formatted properly because only then it can draw the attention of the audience. While drafting the manuscript of your education speech that you are going to deliver, remember to include only the main ideas and the facts that are considered of prime significance behind the idea of educating people. Including too many ideas that are not relevant to the topic will deviate the readers from grasping the significance of education.

You should always communicate your thoughts and ideas in lucid language so that the audience can understand your point of view and analyze them in their minds. Do not forget to hold your personal opinion and suggestions to improve the education system in our country. A personal touch in any speech can inspire the audience.

You should always start your speech by discussing the key points that should be considered while talking about the influences of getting educated. Always include facts that are proven and mention the latest studies and findings regarding the subject matter. You can also share your own opinion and solutions that people should work on to improve the standard of the education system.

While delivering a speech, always remember to connect with the audience by addressing them in the second person. Maintaining proper eye contact with the audience is highly important because they should not be treated as separate identities. Also, prepare your speech considering the time limit you will have.

3. What are the points that should be included in an education speech while discussing ideas to make the education process enjoyable?

Students enjoy learning when the classroom is student-oriented and not teacher-centric. That means that students should be provided with equal opportunities to communicate and share their own thoughts and ideas on a particular topic. The students should also go through the content they should learn in the next classes so that they can also equally participate in the discussion with the mentors. Preparing beforehand will provide them with the opportunities to clarify their doubts with the mentors. Since the content included in your education speech should be customized, it is better that you participate in brainstorming new ideas that you can talk about while delivering the speech.

4. How to come up with new ideas for delivering a proper education speech?

Brainstorming sessions are ideal to come up with new ideas. The more time you will invest in thinking about the different aspects regarding a particular topic, the more the content will be relevant and attract the attention of the audience. Since education is one of the most popular and important topics that one can talk about, the speakers should always include only the key points. In order to make the speech interesting, the speaker should always establish direct communication with the audience by asking them a few questions that they can answer in 'yes' or 'no'. They should also work on thinking about some unique strategies and ideas that can make their speech more relatable.

5. How to learn the methods of delivering an education speech?

The articles published on Vedantu can give you a clear idea of how to deliver a speech. You can also go through the articles that are subject-specific. For more details, you can download the printable materials from the website. The articles published on the website of Vedantu consist of the content that should be delivered through a long or a short speech.

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Sheridan is first husker elected to national academy of education.

9 hours ago · 4 min read

Sheridan is first Husker elected to National Academy of Education

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Susan Sheridan has been elected to the National Academy of Education.

Sheridan is the first Husker faculty member selected for the honor. She is the George Holmes University Professor of educational psychology and the founding director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools , which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

“The work that I’ve been able to do has only been possible because of the many relationships and partnerships that I’ve been a part of over the past 30-plus years,” she said. “My collaborations with colleagues and students that share in this vision and help push it forward has leveraged our efforts in ways that I could never have imagined.”

Chancellor Rodney D. Bennett said: “Dr. Sheridan has been an international leader in serving families and children for decades. Her commitment to bettering the lives of some of the most vulnerable is further evidence of the positive impact UNL’s work has on the state of Nebraska and beyond. We are very proud to see her recognized with this prestigious and well-deserved honor.”

Sherri Jones, interim vice chancellor for research and economic development, said it is a much-deserved honor for Sheridan.

“Sue truly exemplifies our university’s research mission of discovery, creativity and innovation advancing the state, the nation and the world,” Jones said. “And as with all our great faculty, so many students who have learned from and with her have been inspired to carry on that work.”

Sheridan has been at Nebraska since 1998 after several years at the University of Utah, but she traces her interest in helping schools and families work together to benefit children to her stint as a “baby school psychologist” early in her career. “I realized then that paradoxically, we have to support adults to make a difference in kids’ lives.”

“It’s been a lifelong dream to bring that to fruition,” Sheridan said.

In the years since, Sheridan has worked to develop a strengths-based approach for supporting families and children who are marginalized due to economic, developmental, educational or geographic factors, as well as those who represent cultural or demographic diversity. She developed two family engagement/partnership interventions — Teachers and Parents as Partners and Getting Ready — and has worked with several teams and students exploring the efficacy of such interventions.

She founded the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools at Nebraska in 2004. The center has served more than 5,700 pre-K to grade 12 educators and more than 105,000 children and adolescents.

“The real value of our work is hearing from people who are participating in the research — the parents, teachers, school psychologists, counselors and principals who have trusted us and agreed to work with us,” Sheridan said. “Hearing their stories about how the experiences changed their lives for the better is incredibly humbling and rewarding.”

She is also proud of how many of her students have gone on to continue to improve and expand the work. She noted that she has collaborated with many of her former students and still collaborates with her doctoral adviser from the University of Wisconsin. Sheridan will be formally inducted into the academy at its annual meeting on Oct. 25.

The mission of the National Academy of Education, founded in 1965, is to advance high-quality research to improve education policy and practice. The academy consists of U.S. members and international associates who are elected based on scholarship related to education. The academy undertakes research studies to address pressing educational issues and administers professional development fellowships to enhance the preparation of the next generation of education scholars.

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• Faculty profile: Susan Sheridan
• Educational Psychology at Nebraska
• Education and Human Sciences at Nebraska
• Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools
• Susan Sheridan
• educational psychology
• Education and Human Sciences
• National Academy of Education
• Research and Economic Development
• Rodney D. Bennett
• Sherri Jones

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Speech on Education System in India for 1, 2 & 3 Minutes

By Vijay Gupta

Published on: April 8, 2022

In this article, I’m going to write a speech on education system in India. That means if you’re looking for a speech on the Indian education system, you’ve come to the right place.

Here, the speech is written in different durations, you can choose any of them as per your preference.

I’ve chosen this topic because the education system of our country is very rubbish, it needs a lot of improvement. That’s why I decided to write some speeches on it so that you can make people aware of this by one of these speeches.

Hence, without wasting your valuable time, let’s get started.

Read also, speech on health is wealth .

Table of Contents

Speech on Education System in India for 1, 2 & 3 Minutes –

1. speech on education system in india for 1 minute –.

All the respected teachers, audience and the Principal of the school, my name is Bhuvan Bam. I study in class 6th. Today, I’m going to give a speech on the education system in India. If I make any mistake, please forgive me.

The Indian education system has changed a lot over time. The earlier education was provided in Gurukuls, students used to go to Gurukuls, serve the Gurus, obey their orders and got educated over time. That is, everything was orderly at that time. There was no greed for anything.

But, today it’s not the same as before.

Today’s education system is getting worse day by day. People have started considering educational institutions as a good means of earning money. They focus more on profit than on providing good education.

Instead of improving education, they focus on how to earn more money.

If it continues, education won’t have any importance in the upcoming times and the purposes for which people are educated will have no meaning. That’s why we need to think a little about our education system so that we can make our country’s education system better than others.

Therefore, be a little aware of our education system and make it as strong as possible.

Read also, speech on poverty in India .

2. Speech on Education System in India for 2 Minute –

First of all, I want to thank my class teacher who gave me this opportunity to speak on the education system in India. I’m very nervous today because it’s my first chance to speak on any topic. So, if I make any mistake, please give me pardon.

You all are well aware of the education system of India. I think, there is no need to explain much about it.

Our education system has many policies, but most of them are useless. It has been molded in such a way that anyone can buy his desired degree with money, just he should be aware of such people who are experts in these kinds of work.

We are going backward day by day from other countries in terms of education. When our education system is not good, how will we compete with them?

There has always been a demand for good education and also questions have been raised on the issue related to it but the government doesn’t pay attention to them. So, our future looks in danger. When we don’t get a good education, how will we get good employment?

From now, it’s very important to pay a little attention to our education system so that we can develop ourselves and lead a prosperous and dignified life.

In the end, I would say to all of you that we should try our best to make our education system better, because the better we are educated, the more easily we will be able to find good means of earning to live life.

Read also, speech on knowledge is power for 1, 2, 3 & 5 minutes.

3. Speech on Education System in India for 3 Minutes –

My greetings to all of you, my name is Aaradhya Soni and I study in class 12th. Today, I’m going to give a speech on the education system in India. By mistake, if make any error, please forgive me.

There is no doubt that our education system is better than before but still, there are many defects that we all have to address together so that we can make our education system better than other countries and see its impact widely on the national and international level.

The biggest drawback in the Indian education system is that the education which is given to the students is less practical. As a result of which, they are unable to learn things properly.

For the past few years, the Indian education system has been so shaken that it’s as if there has been a flood of chaos. Many times neither the exams are conducted on time and even if they are conducted there is a huge delay in the results, due to which the students are falling prey to depression.

The great writers and litterateurs of our country have made many efforts to improve the education system, but the changes in the system have been negligible.

आईटी’ students with 90% marks are not able to get admission to those institutes. This is only because of the disorganized education system.

If it continues, no one will wish to be educated.

That’s why it’s our duty to fix the education system of our country and at the same time try to strengthen it in every possible way.

Now, I stop myself here and end the speech.

Thank a lot.

Final words –

Ultimately, I hope that the article must have satisfied you. Here, I have written three speeches with different duration of time. Now, you’re free to choose one as per your suitability.

Additionally, One more thing that I want to say is that I’ve already written many speeches on different topics. Some are given here in this article via links some are in the Speeches section on the header. You can read them too.

If you really liked this article, please share it with those who need it.

Vijay Gupta

Hello everyone, My name is Vijay Gupta and I belong to a very small town that is situated in district Hardoi, which is in Uttar Pradesh. 1. Education – I’ve completed my primary education from a private school that is situated in my hometown and upper primary, matric and higher secondary education have been completed from a government college. Well, I was an average student till class 5th, but I accelerated my preference towards studies from class six. Consequently, I passed out many classes with good positions. Even I passed out 12th with good marks ( 405/500 ) and topped my college. Due to getting good marks, I got a cheque of 500 rupees and was rewarded by the Principal of my college. After completing my 12th, I prepared twice for IIT ( Indian Institute of Technology ) from Aakash institute, but unfortunately, I failed to get selected into the best IIT colleges. But during the preparation, I was being graduated from CSJMU Kanpur. I completed my graduation in 2016 and now I’m pursuing an educational degree ( B.Ed. ). 2. Profession – Although I love teaching, but I also do blogging. Both are my favorite jobs.

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Speech on Indian Education System

• Updated on  
• Mar 17, 2021

ASL stands for Assessment of Speaking and Listening and it is part of the continuous and comprehensive evaluation under CBSE. It is aimed at improving the English speaking and listening skills of students. It is compulsory for students who are in class 9th and 10th. Students are asked to prepare short or long speeches on any given topic and must speak on the topic for the allotted time period. In this blog, we will cover the topic of speech on the Indian education system so you can prepare better and ace your ASL evaluation!

Table of Contents

Speaking task: speech on indian education system (2- 3 minutes), speaking task: speech on indian education system (5 to 10 minutes).

Students are generally given the topic on spot with some pointers by the evaluator and the students have one minute to prepare for the topic and must speak continuously for 2 to 3 minutes on the topic. Good morning everyone. My name is —– and my topic for today’s assessment is the Indian Education System. The Indian education system is one of the oldest, most diverse learning systems in the world. The Indian educational system is designed to ensure a well-developed and uniform curriculum across different states for different grades in the subcontinent. Education is given utmost importance in India with schemes like free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 to 14, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign and Mid-meals in government schools to encourage students to attend school. I thank you for listening and I will conclude this speech by saying that I am aware that the Indian education system is not without its flaws but it is also progressive and rapidly changing. 

How to Write a Speech on Discipline?

Good morning to all. My name is —- and my topic for the English speaking task is the Indian Education System and I shall try to do justice to this topic. The education system in India comprises of four levels: pre-primary, primary, secondary and senior secondary system; all these levels are well-structured and developed to systemically introduce students to subject matter, develop their language and cognitive skills and prepare them for higher education. The Indian education system gives equal value to knowledge-based learning as well as co-curricular.  Under the system, sports and performing arts are given the utmost significance and all students are encouraged to take part and develop a skill or expertise that will help them in the future. The Indian education system also focuses on practical learning and group activities to provide exposure and teach students the value of teamwork and communication. There are different types of schools in India: Public, private and public aided private schools, international schools and national schools. Indian parents also have the option of homeschooling their children.  The Indian education system focuses on the overall development of each student by introducing them to the basics of all the subjects from the start till secondary level. Once a student reaches the senior secondary level that is 11th and 12th, the student has the option of choosing between different streams like science, arts and commerce. Senior secondary classes thoroughly prepare students for higher education.  There are some major drawbacks when it comes to the education system in India. The system focuses on rote learning rather than encouraging free thinking, flexibility and interaction, many schools lack basic facilities like computer labs or even proper furniture and the teachers are either underqualified or underpaid which is a huge impediment to growth and learning. Thank you for listening, I hope this speech was educational and informative.

Check Out – English Speech Topics for Students

We hope with this blog, you are all set to give a speech on Indian Education System. If you are studying for your exams and need quick notes for revision then check out other study blogs on Leverage Edu and subscribe to our newsletter to get regular updates.

An ardent reader and writer, Gitali loves to create meaningful and well-researched content on studying abroad, scholarships and exploring student life hacks. When she is not busy working, you can find her doodling in the corner or discussing why Seinfeld is the greatest sitcom ever.

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Speech: Gender equality – just, prudent, and essential for everything we all aspire to

Closing remarks by un under-secretary-general and un women executive director sima bahous to the 68th session of the commission on the status of women, un headquarters, 27 march 2024..

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[As delivered.]

You have arrived at Agreed Conclusions for CSW68 [the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women] —congratulations! As the world was watching, you showed the very best of the multilateral system, and you came together to advance critical normative work for women and girls everywhere. You have recognized the inequalities that impact the lives of women and girls living in poverty and the solutions we have and we need to address them.

And you agreed that these inequalities do not define us, but that we are defined by wanting to urgently overcome them.

You adopted robust Agreed Conclusions [advance unedited version] , a blueprint that envisages a world with greater financial inclusion, increased spending on social protection, increased stability, equal opportunities, and great hope, rights, and freedoms for women and girls everywhere. A world that will no longer accept that one in ten women lives in poverty. A world that will accelerate the investment in women and girls and that urgently pursues the realization of the fundamental rights of all women and girls to live in peace and prosperity everywhere.

This is a special moment. I thank you all for your dedication and determination to bring this CSW68 to a successful close.

I thank His Excellency Ambassador Antonio Manuel Revilla Lagdameo of the Philippines for his able leadership as Chair of the Commission, together with the very able Vice Chairs, their Excellencies Ms. Yoka Brandt of the Netherlands, Ms. María Florencia González of Argentina, Mr. Māris Burbergs of Latvia, and Ms. Dúnia Eloisa Pires do Canto from Cabo Verde.

A special deep appreciation goes to Her Excellency Ms. Yoka Brandt of the Netherlands for her most skilful facilitation. Her Excellency, you would agree, shepherded you with grace and determination to reach the Agreed Conclusions. I also would like to thank her able team, in particular Robin De Vogel, for their support.

The Agreed Conclusions will only have value in as much as their implementation in countries makes a difference in the lives of women and girls, and in as much as they contribute to accelerating progress on the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] . We are a mere six years away from 2030. Gender equality remains our best chance to reach them.

I hope that you will use the Agreed Conclusions as you discuss the Pact for the Future , and that you will be bold and ambitious in advancing them, as we head to the Summit of the Future in September, to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025, and, of course, the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action next year.

This year’s CSW had two heads of state, three vice-presidents, and more than 100 ministers in attendance. Nearly 4,000 delegates in total contributed to the different deliberations.

We had a record number of close to 5,000 civil society representatives, the second highest number we have ever recorded. We saw more than 1,000 side events and parallel events. Partners came together to share experiences and dreams, and also to recommit.

And we benefitted from the creativity, energy, and substantive contributions from the youth delegates, including adolescent girls, who brought a fresh perspective to this year’s CSW . Upholding the Youth Forum and youth space is integral to our work here, which should be strengthened as part of the official Programme of Work of this Commission.

We also welcomed the adoption of the Resolution on women, the girl child, and HIV and AIDS , led by SADC [the Southern African Development Community], and commend Member States’ commitment to increase investment in gender equality and the empowerment of women in the HIV response.

It is not my wish to dampen this moment. Yet, in a world of cascading crises, de-democratization, gender equality backlash, and restricted civic spaces, women and girls will continue to be disproportionately impacted.

It makes the work you have done here all the more important.

I opened this CSW calling for a ceasefire in Gaza . I close it by reiterating this call and the call of the Security Council two days ago, for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered access to humanitarian assistance, the release of all hostages, and for peace. Sustainable, just peace for all women and girls everywhere must be our collective priority. In Gaza, in Sudan, in Haiti, in Ukraine, and elsewhere in the world.

UN Women stands with every woman and girl everywhere who is facing the scourge and the consequences of war and conflict.

We stand with all women peacebuilders, negotiators, human rights defenders who continue to pursue justice for women and girls—often at high personal cost.

As we close this session, we begin to turn our attention to next year when you will discuss 30 years since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action .

The scale of our ambitions, your ambitions for Beijing plus 30, must match the scale of our and your responsibility to achieve equality for every woman and girl, in all their diversity, not in 300 years, not in 100 years, not in 50 years, but urgently—now. There is much work to be done and much reward in doing it.

I look forward to working with the new CSW Bureau who will take this forward.

So, let us leave this room as collective champions for gender equality. Let us find new ways to do more, together, to accelerate progress and strengthen our partnerships.

And let us make the case, powerfully, for equality. Let the world hear what we have asserted over the past two weeks: that gender equality is just and prudent, and essential for everything we all aspire to.

I thank you.

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
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Liz Cheney Gives Warning to Supreme Court

F ormer Representative Liz Cheney issued a warning to the United States Supreme Court about its handling of former President Donald Trump 's claims of presidential immunity.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments into Trump's immunity claims on April 25. His legal team has argued presidential immunity should shield Trump from being charged in the Department of Justice (DOJ) case surrounding alleged attempts at thwarting the 2020 election results.

The DOJ last year charged the former president with attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, culminating in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, as well as alleged efforts to send false slates of pro-Trump electors to the electoral college from key swing states. He has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to all charges.

Trump has argued that he was acting in an official capacity at the time, and therefore cannot be charged. Critics have said he was acting as a candidate, not an elected official.

Cheney, a former Republican representative who emerged as a Trump critic following January 6, on Wednesday warned the Supreme Court about the importance of handling the case quickly while speaking at Drake University's Annual Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship.

"When [Trump] now is pushing this idea that a president should have complete immunity against any criminal prosecution for anything he does in office and he's pushed this appeal to the Supreme Court, I think it's very important that the Supreme Court recognizes what he's doing is a delaying tactic," Cheney said.

"It cannot be the case that a president of the United States can attempt to overturn an election and seize power and that our justice system is incapable of holding a trial and holding him to account before the next election."

Cheney said she trusts the court will "deal in a responsible and expeditious fashion with this appeal." However, she added the court taking action that would result in further delay in the public seeing evidence and amount to "suppression of the evidence."

"The American people have a right to see that evidence, and the court ought to recognize that," she said.

Newsweek reached out to the Supreme Court's public information office and Cheney's The Great Task PAC for comment via email.

Video of her remarks was posted to X, formerly Twitter , by the account Republican Voters Against Trump and has been viewed more than 150,000 times by Thursday morning.

Cheney represented Wyoming's At-Large Congressional District from 2017 to 2023. After the January 6 riot, she was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his alleged role in it, invoking the former president's ire. She ultimately lost the GOP primary election in 2022 to Trump-backed Representative Harriet Hageman by more than 37 percentage points. Cheney remains a vocal critic of Trump and the growth of his influence in the Republican Party .

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To combat bullying and extremism, Air Force Academy turns to social media sleuthing

After years of internal and external alarms that the military isn’t doing enough to address hate and extremism , an obscure federal contract may suggest a new approach: monitoring the social media of Air Force Academy cadets, staffers − and anyone else around the campus.

Last month, the Air Force struck a contract for digital monitoring to identify hate speech, cyberbullying, sexual harassment and extremism at its Colorado Springs academy. The goal is to “combat cadet conduct in digital mediums that has the potential to negatively impact culture and climate.”

Monitoring the posts of the more than 4,000 cadets aligns with efforts elsewhere to screen disinformation and hate speech; other universities plus police agencies and many employers make comparable efforts. But the contract’s extension to the campus community led some experts to raise concerns about whether the effort could violate privacy for military or civilian users.

And while Air Force Officials say there are no plans to replicate the program elsewhere in the military, experts on surveillance worry about the contract’s open-ended wording and sweeping focus.

At $273,500 total, it's unclear just how far-reaching the effort will become. The contract focuses mainly on a social media system used at the school but requires that monitoring shift to other major platforms such as YouTube or TikTok if misconduct shifts to those areas. The contractor, Miami Beach-based 3Gimbals LLC, did not respond to requests for comment. 

The program came as a surprise to experts on extremism in the military, including Bishop Garrison, who led a Pentagon working group that made more than 20 extremism-related recommendations for the armed forces in 2021 .

“This is not something we covered, and it’s not something I’ve ever heard about happening in the military,” Garrison said. Referencing the constitutional protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, he added: “I think this will need to be thoroughly reviewed because it has the potential to be a Fourth Amendment issue and may potentially infringe on key privacy protections.”

The week in extremism: This social media network set the stage for Jan. 6, then was taken offline. Now it's back

Protecting academy culture, or infringing on constitutional rights?

The social media monitoring contract, which will last one year with a possibility to extend another six months, was awarded Feb. 13, according to the federal government’s System for Award Management website. The effort is part of “a larger cultural concern at the Air Force Academy that is captured under a larger campaign,” said Thomas Torkelson, deputy director of the Air Force Academy’s Center for Character & Leadership Development, who leads the program.

The goal of monitoring social media is to educate cadets, prevent them from spreading harmful material online and respond when someone is posting content that academy leaders consider harmful to the base’s culture, Torkelson said. That includes identifying people who post inappropriately and, if necessary, holding them accountable for any criminal activity witnessed by the monitoring company, he said.

“It’s not about trying to infringe upon First Amendment or Fourth Amendment rights,” Torkelson said. “In fact, it’s trying to protect Fourth Amendment rights.” 

Torkelson cited the hypothetical example of a cadet who posts derogatory information about a sexual assault victim on social media. The monitoring program would flag the post so it could be quickly removed, thus protecting the victim’s right to privacy, he said.

The Air Force, like the other branches of the service, has struggled with extremism and online misconduct. A federal affidavit unsealed this week revealed that an Air Force security analyst had been suspected of obtaining classified material and leaking it online , including on the gaming site Discord. While that analyst, Jason Gray, was not apparently an Academy cadet, his case was reminiscent of an even larger case that led to charges against Air Force National Guard member Jack Teixeira. And Gray's interest in the Boogaloo movement , which espouses a second civil war in the U.S., points to larger concerns about how military members can turn their training and classified knowledge toward extremism.

But experts in surveillance have serious concerns about the Air Force Academy’s new approach.

Air Force Academy aims to monitor the Jodel app, a hyperlocal social system

Ryan Shapiro, executive director of the open-government group Property of the People who holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focusing on government surveillance, said he’s particularly troubled by the scope and scale of the Air Force Academy’s new contract.

Public documents outlining the program are not precise about who, or what, will be monitored, he said. Monitoring is primarily focused on an anonymous hyperlocal social media site called Jodel, which people on and around the academy can use to make public posts, similar to Reddit. Jodel did not respond to a USA TODAY inquiry about the monitoring effort. 

But the contract also allows for the monitoring of “other social media platforms,” according to its Performance Work Statement. 

The program also is ostensibly aimed at monitoring the social media activity of cadets, but Torkelson acknowledged that anybody using Jodel or any other social media in the geographical vicinity of the academy also could be targeted. 

“The program’s expansive scope reeks of calculated ambiguity,” Shapiro said. “It appears custom-made to serve as a vehicle for the policing of dissent, not just of military personnel but also the broader public.

“That’s deeply disturbing.”

Some Republican members of Congress have criticized the military’s efforts to combat extremism, calling it a witch hunt and a waste of the military’s time and money. 

USA TODAY contacted half a dozen Republican members of the Congressional Armed Services Committee − the body responsible for crafting the legislation that funds the military each year − but none would comment for this story.

Shapiro noted the Air Force Academy’s new program isn’t the first time a military establishment has sought to police the speech of personnel. Last year, The Intercept reported on a shadowy Pentagon unit called the Protective Services Battalion, which trawls through social media searching for posts from service members that might embarrass current and former top military brass.

Nor is social media monitoring limited to the armed forces. As USA TODAY reported in 2022 , the FBI has in place an extensive social media monitoring program known as SOMEX, which is constantly spying on American citizens and searching for posts that might indicate extremism views or activity.

Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the new Air Force Academy monitoring contract also aligns with efforts by private companies and institutions to keep track of what their employees are posting on social media.  

“We are living in a time when employers, schools, and universities are surveilling their employees and students at unprecedented levels which often include, not just emails or internet traffic conducted on company devices, but also social media use including outside of work/school hours,” Guariglia told USA TODAY. “For that reason and considering the attention the military has gotten for extremism in its ranks, it’s not a major surprise that the Air Force Academy would contract a company like this.”

Despite the extent of social media surveillance in American working life, it remains apparently rare within the military ranks – the same group that experts have found are more than twice as likely to become involved in fatal extremist activity.

The Air Force Academy has always been responsible for shaping cadets into well-rounded, responsible members of society, Torkelson said. Today, with social media playing a large role in many people’s lives − especially young people − the academy has to respond to that reality and adjust its policies and procedures to accommodate new societal trends, he said.

“The academy’s mission is to develop leaders of character ready to serve their nation,” Torkelson said. “It’s a character thread that we’re trying to educate them on − what’s the proper way to behave in an anonymous digital space − that’s it.”

But Guariglia noted the same concerns voiced by Shapiro: that the Air Force Academy contract seems extraordinarily open-ended:

“The concern here, as always, is mission creep,” he said, “the idea that a program designed to find serious threats might be used to penalize people for their beliefs, associations or creative expression.”

Monitoring contract will create training for cadets, leadership

The contract for the Air Force doesn’t just cover monitoring. It also calls for training modules for senior academy staff to teach cadets about social media use.

The training should be for 18- to 24-year-olds and focus on all social media platforms, “geared towards 18-24-year olds’ online conduct on all social media platforms,” the Performance Work Statement says, and will be used by about 4,400 cadets.

Torkelson said the training element is a key reason for the social media monitoring. The idea is for 3Gimbals LLC to spend a year tracking what cadets and staff post online, then use the company’s findings to craft its training sessions, two of which will be held throughout the year, he said. 

“It’s not about policing, it’s not about rooting out bad actors,” he said. “It’s about educating the entire population on what being a leader of character looks like.”

Shapiro was skeptical.

There are plenty of organizations and companies that already provide social media training for establishments like the Air Force Academy, he said. Indeed, the academy already has an extensive social media guide for cadets.

“Most large corporations and universities have social media trainings for their people, and they don’t include mass surveillance as a requirement of the trainings,” Shapiro said. “It’s quite possible to run a social media seminar without having spied on the entire community first.”

Will Carless is a national correspondent covering extremism and emerging issues. Contact him at [email protected] . Follow him on X @willcarless.