Education needs to be more about practical life. What we learn in school has to be something of use for when we graduate. My view is that, most of the time, our education teaches us to earn a living, but not the values we need to live in this society.”

Shweta Arora, 23

Co-founder of Youth for Earth, an organization that builds partnerships between youth and businesses for environmental action using education to achieve green growth | India

The role of education is to empower children and adults to become active participants in the transformation of their societies. Education can create peaceful societies by strengthening the teaching and understanding of shared knowledge, values and attitudes enabling individuals to live together in diverse environments.

By driving inclusive and equality-centred dialogues and promoting shared knowledge and values, education can create peaceful societies.”

Sifiso Mtshali, 27
Director, The Learn It project | South Africa

I come from a rural part of Nepal—the [lowest-ranking] district in the Human Development Index. In my area, we don’t have computers, we don’t have lights, and we don’t have transportation. It takes me four days to reach my village from Kathmandu [the capital].

There is a huge gap in our education. We are taught about making robots when we don’t even have buses. We need to revise the curriculum so that relevant topics are included, for example agriculture. We also need to build more universities in rural areas so that young people don’t all leave the villages for the capital.”

Ranjana Giri, 22
Student at the Nepal School of Social Work | Nepal

Generally, education is linked to both fertility rates and resource consumption. Once one is taught about life, the world and how it functions, it becomes much easier to do what is right and to solve even the toughest challenges that the human race encounters on a daily basis.”

Nathacia Olivier, 26
Director, Criar Investments | South Africa.

You can go to school, college or university, get an average of 90 percent and graduate, find a great job, make a lot of money, smoke weed, drink alcohol, and be a sexist or a bully. That does not make society peaceful and sustainable.

To create peaceful and sustainable societies we need to deal first with the growing economic inequality. For example, education cannot develop while people are killing each other at Marikana for a wage increase. We need responsible citizens, who are emotionally intelligent, have the ability to reach out and care for society at large.”

Ntsikelelo Bles Ntungela, 23
Student at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University | South Africa

Education is the only tool towards creating peaceful and sustainable societies. Through cross-cultural education, people are harmoniously living sustainable lives because they’re educated global citizens who embrace multiculturalism. Developed societies comprise enlightened people living in diversity for which education plays a crucial role.”

Mokgobi Koketso Marishane, 30
Network facilitator at Activate Change Drivers | South Africa

I teach children at risk, who are vulnerable to marriage at an early age, prone to drop out of school before reaching 16 and sometimes resort to suicide. Some of my students walk 2-3 hours from home to reach their school, meaning they also value their education.

But education today is not creating peaceful societies. Focus is more on creating human labor rather than creating citizens. There is not enough about ethics, morals, and creating motivation. Education needs to create good citizens who are also ethical beings.”

Sushant Rijal, 27
Founding member of Echo Change Nepal, a youth-led platform to share projects on peace and sustainable development | Nepal

Education, either formal or informal, serves as the pillar, cornerstone, and bedrock for sustainable societies. Especially by reorienting learning, public awareness, and training, can we contribute to solving some of the problems our Earth is currently facing such as conflicts, poverty and inequality. Thus, education serves as catalyst for development.”

Usman Muhammad, 28
Founder and executive director, Centre for Renewable Energy and Action on Climate Change (CREACC), collaborator and youth representative at UN University

The PathmakersProgramme, a transformative curriculum based on experiential learning, gives college students first-hand exposure to grassroots realities and challenges them to broaden their perspectives on various issues including gender, caste, environment and identity. Supporting young volunteers to lead social action projects builds their life skills and leadership potential. The committed young volunteers are supported with a one-month long internship in an unfamiliar location through an NGO. The programme aims to develop leadership among young people through volunteerism and build ownership for common spaces.

One of our young volunteers, after participating in a meeting on gender based discrimination, supported his sister to continue her studies in computer science. His family was not supportive of her sister but he took a strong position and convinced his family members to support her sister in pursuing her interest.”

Bijay Nayak, 28
Team leader of Pathmakers Programme at Patang, a youth-led non-profit organization | India

I believe that education is the key to building the world of tomorrow. To reach this goal, it is necessary to promote essential values such as tolerance and open-mindedness. Instead of resorting to violence, pupils should be taught to debate peacefully and to live in a community.

It is also crucial that students learn basic knowledge of humanities and sciences. Every child in the world should be able to read and solve mathematical problems. Nevertheless, from a certain age, children should specialize in a subject so that they do what they enjoy.”

Tanguy Garrel-Jaffrelot, 20
Student at the Sciences Po Paris and University Pierre and Marie Curie | France

Synergy brings together people from different backgrounds and gives youth a platform for their voices to be heard. We can vote when we are 18, but we get no opportunity until then to express our opinions. We need to exchange ideas and knowledge for transformative learning.

For example, I have worked in several villages of tribal people from a caste without many opportunities. In one case, a woman married into a different caste and faced a hostile reaction. But training helped to give her the confidence to live with her reality. She started a group of women and trained them in tailoring, was successful and has expanded her business. This is transformative education. She is not an educated degree-holder, but positively transformed her living conditions.”

Ajay Pandit, 31
Secretary and founder of Synergy, a platform for youth to become socially engaged | India