The world without borders, with significant distance reduction, due to technological advancement is emerging. Global citizenship involves caring about the people with whom we share the habitat (earth), respecting their opinions and human rights, while building a more peaceful world. The world needs global citizenship education more than ever before, as humanity is plagued by poverty, adverse climate change impacts, and conflicts among others.

Education for global citizenship involves education for tolerance and appreciation of diversity, conflict resolution, humanitarian actions and introduction to the principles of human rights and humanitarian law as well as civic responsibilities at local, national, and intercontinental levels. The global citizenship, created by education, is such that a student feels obliged to ensure his/her location is healthier, peaceful, and more prosperous. Global citizenship education is critical to breaking barriers in development, as people will view themselves as citizens of the earth, hence the need to promote its development.

The onerous task of creating global citizen through education can only be achieved through partnerships. The partnerships have to be multidimensional, multicultural, and multilevel. Global citizenship education is capable of aiding students to think globally, help nationally, and solve local problems. For instance, poverty, war, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), inequality and youth unemployment etc, are general problems, with varying severity across nations. The global citizens can then solve the problems plaguing humanity, due to shared commitments to global development.

It is recommended that a framework on global citizenship education that accommodates prevailing realities globally should be developed by stakeholders. Government, philanthropists, and private firms should increase and monitor investments in education, especially in developing countries. Awareness of global citizenship should be taken to the mass media (print, visual, and radio), using local languages, to raise the consciousness of people who do not have access to formal education.

Global citizenship education provides a platform to accept other people for who they are, respect their opinions, and co-create a peaceful, healthier and prosperous world.

How educational systems can be redesigned for creation of global citizens? What is a global citizen and how can our systems of education create global citizens? A global citizen is an individual who is sufficiently knowledgeable about his world, is aware of his/her roles as a citizen, respects values and diversity in all issues, and actively participates in all issues, from local to universal level (Chaengchenwet, 2010). A global citizen can also be defined as someone who has a global moral perspective that ‘all human beings have certain fundamental human rights and all human beings have duties to respect and promote these rights’ (Chen, 2006). Education is the aggregate of all the processes by which a child or adult develops the abilities, attitudes, and other forms of behavior, which impacts the society in which he lives positively. In other words, it is a process of knowledge dissemination, either to ensure social control or to guarantee rational direction of society, or the contribution of the two (Fafunwa, 1979, cited in Odia and Omofonwa, 2007).

The concept of global citizenship is controversial, as there are dissenting views in literature with regard to the appropriateness or otherwise, of the idea (Ellis, 2010; Tawil, 2013). A school of thought views global citizenship as an unnecessary extension of citizenship education. They also view loyalty as being definitional with clearly stated boundaries, hence the relevance of national citizenship education (Tawil, 2013). They argued further that global citizenship is more theoretical than real, since each individual has a place he/she calls home within the earth. Therefore, all people should be regarded as potential citizens of the earth, without definitional restrictions (Tawil, 2013). In spite of the conflicting views, there are common grounds such as environmental sustainability, respect of human rights, and rule of law and peaceful cohabitation. Therefore, beinga global citizen as an offshoot of nationality is not a problem, but being a responsible one is the issue. The act of being a responsible global citizen has been documented by the advocates of global citizenship education (Oxfam, 2006; Carabain et al., 2012). Therefore, the reason global citizenship is relevant in our time, is not far-fetched.

The global citizenship concept has its roots in the knowledge of global problems and issues, with the aim of co-creating lasting solutions, irrespective of location, nationality, and religion. The concept of global citizenship and education are interrelated and interdependent.Education is no doubt a veritable tool for the liberation of people, living under sub-human conditions (acidic poverty, extreme inequality, infrastructure deficits, inequality, and hunger) and victims of conflicts (Chaengchenwet, 2010). Education can help equip young people for community development and subsequent integration into the national economy.

Literacy, numeracy, and higher studies help young people to access gainful employment, even in turbulent economic periods and promote climate-smart agriculture (Gregg, 2012). In fact, everyone deserves to be educated because the positive externalities cannot be adequately captured.

Education is a long-term investment that needs to be strengthened, if a country must achieve inclusive growth.There is the need to learn and respect the cultures of other countries. This is because the success of trade and diplomacy is implicit in the knowledge of the customs of countries involved (Walker, 2007). Oxfam (2006) defines the global citizen as someone who:

(i) Is aware of the wider world and understands his/her role as a world citizen.

(ii) Respects and values diversity.

(iii) Is committed to making the world a more equitable and sustainable place.

(iv) Takes responsibility for his/her actions.

The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented level of polarization, deprivations, and poverty. The global resource utilization is highly inequitable and unsustainable. Humanity is in the middle of adverse climate change impacts, which are consequences of human damage to the environment, currently inhibiting global development (Carabain et al., 2012). Climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ in that it makes poverty more chronic, inequality wider, deplorable health conditions worse, and induces conflicts among many others (Ologunorisa, 2011). However, education for global citizenship enlightens young people (future of the planet) to care about the planet and show empathy and active concern for those with whom they share it (Oxfam, 2006).

The world without borders with significant distance reduction due to technological advancement is emerging (Chen, 2006). Migration and attendant remittances have reached record highs. The earth now consists of multicultural, international, and multilevel neighborhoods. Therefore, the reason global citizenship education is gaining global relevance is not far-fetched. Nations are more interconnected and interdependent than ever before (Cook, 2010, Carabain et al., 2012). The heavy industrialization in China, the setting up of nuclear weaponry in North Korea, extreme pollution in Nigeria’s Niger Delta etc, have consequences to be shared by all people, regardless of location, color, and race.

Globalization is fast becoming a critical issue of our world. Therefore, it is not out of place, to view global citizenship education as an ingredient for the advancement of human health, economy, and environment, among others. Education for global citizenship involves education for tolerance and appreciation of diversity, conflict resolution, humanitarian actions, and introduction to the principles of human rights and humanitarian law, as well as civic responsibilities at local, national, and intercontinental levels.

The global citizenship created by education is such that a student feels obliged to ensure his/her location is healthier, peaceful, and more prosperous. Global citizenship education is critical to breaking barriers in development as people will view themselves as citizens of the earth, hence the need to promote its development.

Education for global citizenship seeks to strike a balance between loyalty to one’s nation and mankind, in general. This is coming at a time when there is a high level of digital operations in all human endeavors. In fact, online education, e-marketing, online banking, and online dating among many others, are realities of our time. Therefore, global citizenship is a 21st century phenomenon, hence the need to promote and learn it. Global citizenship education is a platform for building of social capital for youth, transfer of technology and culture, and development of values. Therefore, education is capable of improving attitude, knowledge, skills and aspirations of individuals. It, therefore, follows that education is transformative (Gregg, 2012). Education plays a crucial role in building a vibrant, but responsible, citizenship in communities, provinces, nations,and the world at large. Global citizenship education provides a platform to accept other people for who they are, respect their opinions, and co-create a peaceful, healthier and prosperous world.

Global citizenship education is critical to breaking barriers in development as people will view themselves as citizens of the earth, hence the need to promote its development.

There is a gamut of disciplines provided by current functional education, with or without links globally, for example, economics, philosophy, civil engineering, agricultural extension, geophysics etc. However, the fields do not have uniform commitments to environmental protection, pollution, human rights protection, and war. Therefore, global citizenship needs to be included in all human disciplines, since it is a reality we need to face. The new type of citizenship education,provided by global citizenship, is such that people’s consciousness is raised towards building a prosperous, safer and healthier global community.

Global citizenship education is capable of helping students think globally, help nationally and solve local problems (Oxfam,2006, Baxter, 2012). For instance, poverty, war, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), inequality, and youth unemployment among others, are general problems with varying severity across nations. The global citizens can then solve the problems plaguing humanity, due to shared commitments to global development. It is expedient to incorporate global citizenship into the curricula at all levels. The direct effect of global citizenship education, on building highly responsible and environmentally conscious people, is desirable.

How can our educational systems be positioned for building global citizenship?

There is no doubt that education is at different stages of development in various countries of the world. For instance, while the educational indices are impressive in Asia, Europe, and America, the African continent has a lot of work to do. How, then, can one introduce global citizenship education across the board? The onerous task of creating global citizens through education can only be achieved through partnerships (Cook, 2010).

The partnerships have to be multidimensional, multicultural, and multilevel. It involves at the national level, partnership among major stakeholders – students, government, teachers, private individuals and business concerns. At the national level, they will carry out a situation analysis in their own country. The problems inherent in the present educational systems will be identified and defined with the aim of proffering solutions. The citizenship education can then be modified to accommodate global realities, consequently upgrading it to global citizenship education.

In order to create global citizens, the following steps need to be taken urgently:

(i) There is the need to develop a framework on global citizenship that addresses the worries of critics, which can be adapted to suit the prevailing realities of the various countries by UNESCO and other stakeholders.

(ii) Government, philanthropists, and private firms should increase and monitor investments in education, especially in developing countries.

(iii) Global citizenship education should be introduced into all levels of education globally.

(iv) There is the need for all stakeholders, especially policy makers, philanthropists, students, and teachers, to collaborateand co-create and co-invest in global citizenship education.

(v) Researches, seminars, and conferences on global citizenship should be further strengthened and sponsored by government, private individuals, and business concerns. It will not be out of placeif the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, proffers solution to Ebola infections in Liberia, or if Harvard University (USA) proffers solution to Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria or if Sun Yat-sen University (China) comes up with the way out of hunger for Africa etc.

(vi) Peaceful coexistence, fundamental human rights, and environmental sustainability should be promoted throughthe enforcement of applicable laws.

(vii) Awareness of global citizenship should be taken to the mass media (print, visual and radio), using local languages to raise the consciousness of people, who do not have access to formal education.

Conclusion:

The 21st century comes with techno-driven livelihoods, with regard to economic, environmental, and political aspects of human existence. However, the unprecedented level of pollution, economic deprivations, migration, conflicts, and poverty, among many others, are the realities with which humanity contends. These undesirable outcomes call for a paradigm shift from the obtainable to global citizenship education.The roles of our educational system in the creation of global citizenship have been discussed ab initio.Global citizenship education is capable of improving the attitude, knowledge, skills, and aspirations of young people. Therefore, global citizenship education should be embraced by all, towards building a more prosperous, peaceful and healthier world.