Tune In: Pearson and UNICEF to launch their ‘Activate Talks’ series

Photo courtesy of ©UNICEF/Bindra.

Since the UN Millennium Development Goals were set ten years ago, 90 percent of children in developing regions have enrolled in primary school. Because of world leaders, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector’s efforts, their childhoods were not darkened by years of brick making or an early marriage when they should have been learning basic arithmetic and how to read and write. However, 58 million children still remain out of school. More than half of those children were forced out of the classroom due to intensifying conflicts like Syria’s civil war and emergency crises like the Ebola outbreak which barred 5 million children from school. Unlike their peers across the world, these children didn’t grow up with video games, social media or even, in some cases, the internet. Without this basic knowledge, these children lag far behind their digital natives in more developed countries.

Pearson Plc., a ​GBC-Education member, ​and UNICEF UK, are holding a series of high level events over the next year which will bring together experts, thought-leaders, and innovators from a range of industries and countries across the world to discuss how to “activate” change for children. The first in this series of Activate Talks is in London on the 25 June on the topic of Future Learning. It will focus on the challenge of addressing the learning needs of the world’s young people, an estimated 250 million of which are unable to read and write.

Tune into the LiveStream here to catch up on the talk. And don’t forget to chime in with your thoughts on Twitter using the #UnicefActivate hashtag!