Universal secondary education is the next step in order to provide greater access to higher education in developing countries, said Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand.
Hosting a luncheon entitled ‘Pathways to Peace’ at the annual NAFSA conference in Los Angeles, Clark spoke about the evolution of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals, and the challenge of providing education to refugees.
“To get into higher education, you’ve got to complete that secondary education, unless there’s some special catch-up program to get into tertiary,” said Clark, speaking to delegates at the luncheon.
“So really the next frontier I think generally is universal secondary education to provide the base for those future steps.”
“You can get the numbers in front of the teacher, but the teacher needs training”
Clark also highlighted at the luncheon that another way to increase access to higher education is for it to be more affordable, adding that her government abolished interest on student loans, providing the students remained in New Zealand.
Access to education globally was outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals, created in 2015. Formed of 17 objectives, the goals incorporate 169 targets on topics including gender equality, climate change, and poverty.
Goal number four outlines the aim to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”.
“By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes,” one of the targets outlines.
And another reads: “By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.”
These further the targets of the MDGs, which were to provide universal primary education, and ensure enrolment and completion.
Clark said that the focus on quality is also “more inherent” in the SDGs.
“In the MDGs, there was such a scramble to get the numbers in front of the teacher, but as an education audience knows, you can get the numbers in front of the teacher, but the teacher needs training,” she said.
“The teacher needs curriculum and materials, and the teacher needs the physical infrastructure in which to teach.”
However, one challenge Clark identified in the aim to deliver education worldwide, was improving access for refugees.
Nodding to the Turkish-run refugee camps in Turkey as an example of where access to education is provided, the greater challenge lies within the cohorts of internally displaced people, she said.
“What I do observe is that there is a huge group, a majority of forcibly displaced people, that are actually internally displaced people, and they’re not covered by the international conventions,” Clark commented.
“So they don’t get the attention, and one of the problems with the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants last year was they refused to include the IDPs, who are the majority.”
Helen Clark served as the administrator for the United Nations Development Program until this year, and contested as a candidate last year for the position of Secretary-General of the UN.
