Prime Minister Erna Solberg presented funding as the most important issue in stepping up the focus on education when attending a UN Global Education meeting.
– Nobody has worked harder to make education more accessible to all. She has been and is a champion of education around the world, said former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he presented Solberg at the meeting of Financing the Future-Education for All.
Norway was co-sponsor of the meeting with UNICEF and the Malala Fund, and both UN Secretary General António Guterres, President of France Emmanuel Macron and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousufzai were among the participants.
“The most important goal is to put in place the financial mechanisms that will ensure that we get the proper focus on quality education in the future. That is what the Commission we have contributed to has been working for in recent years, this is the main purpose,” says Solberg.
– The to-do list in this area is quite simple. It is important to get well-trained teachers, teachers who are present in the classroom, and one has to make sure that the country is investing in education itself, she says.
She stressed that education must be both innovative and inclusive, and available to the world’s poorest and its minorities.
Guterres thanked Norway and Solberg for their interest and support they have shown for education.
– Before I arrived at the United Nations, I too had a past as a teacher in Portugal. And when I first saw the slums in Lisbon, I realized how important education is, he said.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
