No Longer A Silent Majority

Sigrid Lupieri
Public Information Officer, UNESCO MGIEP

Despite making up 25 percent of the global population, the voices of young people between the ages of 10 and 24 are often not heard, meaning that they have little say in the policies that affect their futures. At UNESCO MGIEP, we believe that young people are our most important stakeholders who not only participate in, but also drive many of our programmes and activities. Here is what some of our young partners have had to say about what motivates them to become activists for change and what they think about current education systems in their respective countries.

Hussain Haider, 22, founder and president of Beydaar Society and EchoChange, Pakistan

Hussain Haider was in seventh grade when he witnessed a suicide attack near his school in Islamabad, Pakistan. “It changed my life because the attacker was about 13 or 14—almost my age,” Haider says. When he returned to his native village, Haider noticed that some of his neighbours and many young people spoke of such attacks almost with respect or admiration. “That’s when I realized that a lack of education was the problem, especially when hatred is often part of the curriculum,” he says.

Since that day, Haider, now a 22-year-old electrical engineering student at Hamdard University in Islamabad, has never stopped campaigning for change in education systems and for giving young people an audible voice. By eighth grade, he had started an organization asking classmates to donate books and received a formal acknowledgement for his activism from the President of Pakistan.

Today, he is the founder and president of Beydaar Society, a youth-led organization that promotes awareness about issues such as child abuse; helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds to gain an education; and promotes tolerance among and between religious groups. Since 2011, he has been the co-founder and executive director of EchoChange, an international platform that brings together young people and youth organizations to promote peace and harmony. The programme also uses media networks, online radio and magazines as tools to promote its message.

Though young people are often ready to work hard for a better shared future, Haider says it is difficult to gain the meaningful attention of policymakers and the wider public. “In Pakistan no one is willing to support a youth-led organization because of a perceived lack of experience,”Haider says. “Young people should be taken into account, but they are not considered important and not taken seriously,” he adds.

Isabel Bueno, 27, environmental science researcher, Mexico

On the other side of the world in Mexico City, Mexico, Isabel Bueno has also been working to promote education for change. The 27-year-old environmental science researcher first became interested in the value of education as a tool for transformation during her university studies. As part of her Bachelor’s thesis, she worked with indigenous communities in northern Mexico to provide non-formal education about the environment and managing ecosystems.

Providing awareness about the environment, however, is not her only focus in her activities. “I have also worked in a kindergarten in coordination with environmental education initiatives,” Bueno says. “This helped me understand how to build an environmental consciousness in children.”

Yuxuan Chen, 22, Representative of the International Child Art Foundation, China

Despite the challenges, Haider is not alone in his quest for change. Other young people around the world, such as Yuxuan Chen, 22, are also promoting ideals of peace and global citizenship. An English literature student at Tsinghua University, Beijing, Chen is working to promote the concept of education for global citizenship in China. “The Chinese education system is still exam-based and you don’t learn how to interact globally,” Chen says.

Since 2014, Chen has been the representative of a new branch of the International Child Art Foundation in China and is responsible for adapting the international organization’s work and mandate to fit Chinese cultural realities. Through her work, children from different backgrounds can use art to develop skills and values which are not usually taught in schools—such as empathy and creativity.

For the first time this year, 100 Chinese pupils between the ages of 9 and 14 will have the opportunity to attend the World Children’s Festival at the organization’s headquarters in Washington D.C. in the U.S. “When I was a child I never dreamed of going abroad and I had never heard of global citizenship,” Chen says. “I want other children to have this opportunity,” she adds.

What our youth partners think about education

Despite working on different projects in very different countries, Haider, Chen and Bueno all have one thing in common: a belief that education systems around the world need to change.

“We need to advocate for governments to include global citizenship into education systems as this is necessary for innovation and social awareness,” Chen says. “Students are not taught the importance of being a responsible citizen and making a contribution to society.”

According to Bueno, education has to move away from being a purely institutional process. “We have to focus more on learning because it gives us the political and ethical tools to transform our personal and local contexts,” she says. “Education today does not take into account the importance of having a political conscience,”
adds Bueno.

Haider, whose youth network EchoChange has expanded to include more than 500 activists in more than 10 countries, believes that certain core courses should be unified and taught in different languages in schools across the globe. At the centre of this suggestion is the notion that education should bring people together rather than tear them apart by teaching one-sided and nationalistic values.

When it comes to the future, Haider is optimistic about making a difference. Though he plans to complete his degree in engineering, he says he will not betray his values and beliefs. He plans to expand his organization to include 120 countries over the next two years. “I spent four years convincing my parents that I will not make a good engineer,” Haider says. “Now they say I am right.”