 Hello everybody we are ready to begin our long day of very exciting events and I hope the Transformation Education Summit UNESCO summit is going well. I hope that this will this days discussions will integrate you and make you think about things that have been out of your realm and maybe we can have much more of a you know wider discussion as we go towards our networking session so welcome everybody. I'm Radhika Hanger at the Center for Sustainable Development I work with Professor Sacks on education related work especially SDG 4.7 I'm also the chair of mission 4.7 which is a group of collectives. A group of organizations that have come together to join forces on making SDG 4.7 possible and we have our esteemed partners here. We have Monica from the Banke Moon Center she's a very vital part of our collaboration we have UNESCO we have SDSN and Center for Sustainable Development and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In the morning I was with a lot of students eco ambassadors that we call. And one of them who's a fifth grader is actually I think is a philosopher but is still in fifth grade. She said something that makes me repeat what she said so she was saying that you know let's not worry about plastic let's not worry about cutting trees. The problem is us the crisis is us let us worry about ourselves and I want to take it one level further by saying that the crisis. It can be resolved and let's think of this crisis constantly so that we become the solutions also. So hopefully the panels today panel one and two will help us to become the solution maker here you are seeing these posters. Turn it around card for a professor at the salova sitting in the crowd here who's managed to get all these youth voices. Let's get those youth voices in internalize them and see what we can do to combine our forces to resolve those issues climate related issues that we have amongst us now. So with that I want to also suggest that we have two panels so please stay over for both the panels panel one is on a ministerial panel which will be contributing towards policies and commitment on SDG 4.7. And the second panel is taking that discussion on SDG 4.7 to a deeper level and linking it to social emotional learning and happiness work that are one of our SDSN groups has been focusing on happiness council. The first panel is organized by mission 4.7. Before we get on to the discussions of the panel. We have a very special guest. She is our education task force member and is a very important think leader in our group. Leslie would win. She's here she runs think equal. And she's actually practicing the two panels that we will be discussing today she has a program in place that links both of them. SDG 4.7 with social emotional learning and she will be she has a very special message for us and she'll be showcasing her work with us Leslie we are so happy that you are we are honored that you are here. Please if you can come here and share your news. The honor is all mine. Honorable ministers, distinguished guests and friends and colleagues. It is a great privilege and honor and a joy to have been tasked with celebrating and presenting to you. A flagship program for mission 4.7 transformative quality education. The flagship is think equal, which is an early years education program in furtherance of targets 4.7 and 4.2. And which understands that it is the early years and brain building during that period. That is the gateway to sustainable development for people and planet. This flagship program mediates transformative education for well being for psychosocial and socio emotional intelligence. Social justice and peace. It builds the platform, the foundation for our children at the very time that the architecture of their brains is being built. I know from 60 plus years of evaluations by preeminent scientists that what happens to us in our first six years of life shapes the rest of our lives and hopefully the 80 that follow. We launched this flagship program at a time when one in six of our children is suffering from diagnosable mental health disorders post pandemic. And when the other pandemics of violence, discrimination, greed, and despair are raging relentlessly. There's not better time than this to announce a positive hope filled announcement that the visionary and enlightened Education Ministry of Belize honorable Education Minister from Seca. The Secretary of State for Education, Zabane, and the wonderful Diane Castillo Mahia CEO for Education of Belize have committed to adopting and implementing this flagship program of mission 4.7. A national curriculum to reach every single child of four to five in infant one throughout the entire country of Belize. Now they have recently created an excellent competency based curriculum in Belize, but they're not content to just sit back and let this theoretical document, though eloquent, though excellent. But it can't do that and it won't do that. So they diligently with their impassioned hearts, and their duty of care fulfilled to their youngest most vulnerable citizens have decided that they will capacitate and equip their teachers with the very tools. The resources, the lesson plans, the narrative picture books, one a week, 30 weeks, three times a week of this concrete tangible expression of those lists of outputs and objectives. They know that that is how you achieve mindset change and positive life outcomes. This gratitude must be expressed here to think equals partners UNICEF. They are exceptional leaders in this field, alongside of course our cherished beloved UNESCO. I know that theory without actionable practice at the cold face in the classroom doesn't carry much meaning. This program is evidence based three RCTs across three countries as disparate as Botswana, Colombia and Australia have proved powerful impact, and indeed that the greater the deficit, the greater the impact in the child. They've done so in terms of proving increases in pro social and decreases in antisocial behaviors and attitudes like anger, aggression, anxiety, withdrawal. This program is so inexpensive that it's been possible for one individual our cherished Jennifer gross who is on the high level advisory committee of mission 4.7 to partner and single handedly fund the entire country. It's so expensive that in the country I come from England, the cost of giving this program to transform the lives of every single child in the whole of England equates to the cost of incarcerating 88 violent offenders for one year. Have we learned that it's better to prevent than make futile attempts to cure. Have we learned that it's not enough to just talk now about reimagining education. We have to repurpose education. It is an institution that was designed in and for the industrial revolution. It's no longer fit for purpose and must be overhauled and repurposed. Belize is doing just that. Please, all of you applaud Belize for their boldness, their courage and their enlightenment. Thank you. It was so inspiring to see that solutions are with us and we are practicing those solutions with that we'll start with our ministerial panel on contributing transforming education summit to the transforming education summit, and we'll have the ministerial panel soon. We want to start with our keynote to very special keynote addresses first by Bunky Moon is a UN former secretary general and patron for mission 4.7 we have a recorded message he's in Korea right now, and so glad that he was able to spare time to share this message with us. Mr. Ministers, Your Excellencies, Dear Partners and Co-Organizers, Dear Participants, I'm pleased to welcome you to the ministerial panel on transforming education for prosperity, people and the planet at Columbia University in contribution to the transforming education summit. Sustainable development goals are our common blueprint for a prosperous, inclusive and environmentally sustainable future. When the SDGs were established, it was clear that to achieve this ambitious agenda, ensuring access to equality education is essential. Under SDG-4 target 4.7 calls for the implementation of education that is inclusive and promotes sustainable development. It underlines the need to foster global citizenship and empower all learners in taking action to achieve the SDGs. I'm honored to act as patron of mission 4.7 together with the honorable Audrey Azulay, Director General of UNESCO. Mission 4.7 is a joint effort of global leaders from different sectors who advocate for transformative education. Its members understand the need for more governmental commitments to introduce global citizenship education and education for sustainable development into nationwide curricula. At the same time, teachers should receive support to teach transformative education in classrooms around the world. Humanity is facing a multitude of challenges from climate change to a global pandemic to economic crisis and active wars. To meet these challenges, we must equip learners of all ages with global citizenship knowledge, competencies, values and skills to navigate a better future for all. I'd like to thank the ministers joining today's session for their commitment and leadership for transformative education, global citizenship and sustainable development. They are acting as trailblazers for policy solutions that promote SDGs target 4.7 and will hopefully inspire many others to follow their shining example. I wish you the best for this event and your discussions about transforming education for prosperity, people and planet. Thank you for committing to a better future for all, leaving no one behind. Thank you. With those truly remarkable inspiring words, we will now turn to another keynote speaker who is very, very special and who's leading this effort of transforming education at UNESCO. So UNESCO's Assistant Director General of Education, Stefania Gianni and also Co-Chair of Mission 4.7. Stefania, can I ask you to please come here and share your words. Thank you so much. Great to be here. I would say the right place to be at the right time with the right people in the room. So I'm very happy coming from these two very intensive days discussing planning about how we can better and more cooperate to transform education to transform society. And Columbia University, you know, everybody knows the reputation, the longstanding commitment to contribute in the humanities as many other sectors. But now, more recently, thanks to the strong engagement of our dear friend, colleague, Jeffrey Sachs, is really very much walking the talk about these topics we are discussing. And just coming immediately after another father of SDGs and SDG4 in particular, is excellency, the former Secretary General of the UN, Bankimoon, just recognizing the role of Bankimoon Center in this business. I think it's a great honor, a great pleasure for me. Well, let me focus is a very complex topic, but I'm sure we share more or less some ideas, some vision, and how to move together ahead. I think that 4.7 is really the engine of transformation of SDG4 agenda. This is a target which actually captures the transformational ethos of the agenda as a whole, and the power of education to touch upon mindset, awareness and behaviors. We know that SDGs are not only about shifting priorities and financing. Despite the very strong, passionate and touching commitment to work on financing that Jeffrey Sachs brought to our attention yesterday morning, many of you were there I'm sure. I would say that the financial gap, which is a huge problem is not the, maybe the most important money are there, if you want to keep money to prioritize education. I would say that the other important gap we are addressing, I see here on the front row, Minister Niky Keramev leading so greatly the digital initiative, which is coming out from the summit. The digital divide, which is the second huge important challenge we have is very important that we have a good roadmap to to develop together, but still, maybe it's not the real crucial core of what transformation is about. The real gap we have to fill as much as possible is the knowledge and values gap, the knowledge and values divide, which is still around the world. And of course, these dimensions are all interconnected. Let me focus presenting the UNESCO perspective and the contribution that we are giving to these unprecedented global mobilization mobilization from countries, the UN agencies and all partners, which has been run through the last six months, through some 154 national consultations that are already bringing out bottom up the perspective from education communities, ministers, and all people and stakeholders involved. So, national consultations report that called that that. The analysis we are doing of these national statements and commitment prepare for the summit finds that a large majority of countries place emphasis on renewing curricula content and methods to make them a more fitting to the purpose to contemporary issues. The previous speakers already said that a model which has been established in many countries, while structure, I mean, centuries ago is not more appropriate. And also, the pre summit organizing June at UNESCO where many of you as ministers 154, another unprecedented record number, talking about their own needs and their own ways to transform a national level highlighted the crucial role that education must play to transform communities, if and only if we address this important point filling the gap, the knowledge and values divide. So, transforming education means for us, quoting from UNESCO perspective documents, empowering learners with the knowledge, the skills, the values and attitudes to care. Learning to care that we need in this century. And the futures of education report, which has been released last year, with a kind of pioneering approach to the transforming education summit. And actually, among other important messages is providing the international community this important message call for a new model, which puts the, the culture of caring at the very center, caring for the planet, because the planet that is there and nice motto is what we have. Actually, caring for others, because we cannot absolutely ignore the increasing number of contest of conflicts were intolerance discrimination, democracy has been at stake. And caring of the new dimension where human beings have to deal with technology first, including artificial intelligence and the ethics of artificial intelligence to be part of the equation. Now, it's about making education systems resilient, adopt to an uncertain and complex future, while actively and creatively contributing to the well being of people and the planet, well being is a notion that I mean, very ambitious. It includes happiness. It includes freedom. It includes all the conditions that as individuals and society have the right to keep alive and education is a kind of tool on one side, and is a kind of goal on the other side. So you will see if you share this vision if you agree with me. I mean, we have a really very, very challenging and demanding task colleagues. How can we transform these beautiful agenda in concrete actions which can have an impact on the ground. ESCO, you know, has been established 75 years ago, six now, I think celebrated the anniversary last year to build a piece in women in man's mind women man's mind. So, at the very core of the mandate of this organization is really very much this agenda. The, the transformative approach we see is not simply an add on on specific subjects, which are course very much important for us will launch also tomorrow in the spotlight sessions the greening education initiative, which will call many countries to commit to include the climate change and environment, natural knowledge in curricula in a very permanent and structural way. We also will bring out the importance of global citizenship education which is already very very well done structure framework that many countries are developing. But beyond that, we have to think of an holistic and comprehensive approach, which must go beyond the specific subjects, and let me give to you some good news. Awareness is growing. We had around the world on the importance of this approach. During the most recent consultation UNESCO run on the implementation of an historic recommendation the 1974 I'm sure some of you are aware of what is about quoting the title as a long one recommendation for international understanding cooperation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms. Now for us are common language, but they've been agreed at the governmental level in the 70s 1974. So now, all countries reported that education for sustainable development and global citizenship are reflected in their laws and policies curricula and teacher education so it's an awareness, which is growing around the world and while we are reviewing this recommendation including new updated dimensions we are happy to see that a progress has been made. Nonetheless, other research reminds us that there is a deep disconnect between the policy and practice for instance our global teacher survey clearly state that 70% of teachers declare not to be equipped to touch upon some subject like antisemitism like discrimination violence and peace or obsessive peers were in the classroom. So this is why we need to push forward and work together strengthen our partnerships the right people at the right place in there at the right time in the room. To transform how learning is organized through these all of institution approaches that actively involve the youth communities and indigenous cultures and voices. Let me highlight this point, indigenous culture and voice are not something to speak about when there is a big conference. There must be a permanent presence and voice within the global and national discussion and reforms. The second point, of course, it's in its crucial and timely to renew curricula. In order they can emphasize what Pope Francis call the ecological approach to education, given a very, very important relevance to social emotional intercultural intergenerational learning. At the last point, investing in teachers must be really a huge priority from high quality initial training and professional development to their direct involvement in transformation. Well, this is a roadmap. This is the plan. This is the commitment we have colleagues. We are partnering crimes. The most important one. I mean, it will be able at the end of this week, next week now to have not only 65 heads of state and governments tomorrow commit me committing at the UN to transform their national system which is already an historic unprecedented record number. But it will be able to bring to our territories to our communities to our leadership. Some of these concrete actions. I think that financial gap will be partially addressed because people can also, you know, contribute financially when they see that there is a real good purpose. The digital gap and divide will be another part of the story, but most importantly will contribute effectively to fill the knowledge and values gap that these words needs to have filled to work better. Thank you very much. I think Madam Janani has given us the roadmap now it's our time to take action and the panel first panel is taking the action panel. So I'm so happy to invite all our ministers please to come and take a seat here. And also inviting Dina bookbinder she's a maverick in education and has been looking at transforming education since she was 24 where she founded education for sharing something that we heard. Thank you for mentioning also so I will give the floor to her. She's also the chair and board of United Nations Youth Associations Mexico and no other person to chair and to moderate the session, other than Dina. Thank you Dina. Thank you so much. In Mexico we say me Casa is to Casa. My home is your home. This might sound familiar to all of you. And a transforming education should be everybody's home. So my name is Dina, I am thrilled to be here with all of you. Thank you so much. Mission for point seven. Honorable banking moon honorable Stephanie a Janini honorable professor Jeffrey sacks for creating mission for point seven and for organizing this exquisite event with a distinguished panel, very diverse and rich. Thank you for being here honorable ministers and representatives of your countries. Her Excellency, Dr. Yeah, I'll say I do to minister of education from Ghana. Her Excellency, Joanna sumo body. State Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from Finland. Her Excellency, Nikki Carameus, Minister for Education and Religious Affairs from Greece. Her Excellency, Agnes me along a minister of education from allowing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you also to the audience in person and to those connected via live stream. I couldn't think of a better place to talk about how to advance the SDGs. Education than a university is universities like Columbia that have the values necessary to address the SDGs series where we need to talk about this. Thank you for hosting us. Now there is a reason why I was invited to moderate this panel. I'm here in the education task force of mission 4.7. And the organization that I founded 15 years ago education for sharing precisely has the mission of raising better global citizens through the power of play. Yes, we translate the sustainable development goals and civic values and social emotional skills through a play reflect and take action methodology to support millions of teachers development to empower all learners to become agents of change, leaving no one behind. We translate the SDGs so that into play so that kids from all ages will understand. First time, why should they care about these great global challenges and what can they do from their local communities and the role they have to play. So I look forward to playing with all of you. How about your favorite SDG one day today we have very short short time. In 15 years we have had the privilege of working hand in hand with ministers of education from around the world, like yourselves and under teams, and we know the incredible challenges that you face every single day. We're also ready to team up with you. I want to ask you for a brief moment to go back to your childhood. And think, what is it. What was it like when you went to school. When you were seven years old, for example, imagine your classroom. What do you see. What do you feel. What do you hear, and what do you smell. What brought you joy. And what motivated you from those experiences so that today you have taken initiatives that can actually transform education. With that in mind, and talking about challenges. I will invite you to in five minutes each to address issues like your countries approach to transformative education as enshrined in SDG. Target 4.7. The role of governments in transforming education and in that. What other stakeholders does your ministry work with to ensure that transformation actually occurs and education policy or program that you're most proud of. And why, and some challenges that you face, implementing these transformative policies, and how have you addressed them. Last but not least, any advice you could share with your fellow education ministers regarding transformative education for the SDGs. I would love to start with your his excellency, Dr. Yeah, will say the two minister of education from Ghana. Can I stand. Is it possible to stand. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. All in five minutes. Wow. Thank you so much. It's a great opportunity to be here this afternoon. So grateful that I was invited to this event as a minister for education in Ghana. I'm proud to be among the panelists here. This afternoon you've asked me to address. It means I have to now repurpose repackage and make sure I can hit a point in regards to what you want me to say, but I just want you to know that I before became minister for education. I live in Los Angeles and taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District. For 10 years of teaching for a living if I school district as a mathematics teacher, I, I got adventurous and began a journey in the development of a charter school. And I developed a new design charter schools in Los Angeles now have three campuses in LA. And I was there that the current president came to America visited their saw me and said, would you consider coming back to Ghana to help me change the education system. He couldn't believe that Ghana will be building schools in South LA. So after I told him all that I was doing and how I got to become a charter school developer he said I'm introducing three senior high school in Ghana. America was the first country that champion free education for all and use that to democratize their system and transform their fortunes. So I want you to come to Ghana, share with me and share with us the American experience and change the education system for me. I wasn't easy responding to that call by decided to go. And I became, he made me deputy minister for education after four years he said hey why don't you become the minister for the case why don't you bring some of the American ideas to bear in our transformation agenda as I sit here and hear about SDG goals and talk about the gap between the knowledge and values and how do you transform that space. We're lucky we're beginning a new curriculum and we're able to infuse the SDG goals into it. So in terms of the curriculum was we implement you also implementing the DGS goals in terms of the values caring for people and all those things that really matter, but also know that in a developing country like Ghana. In order for you to create a transformative education system, you have to begin to understand that you need some leapfrogging strategies. The government decided that we wanted every student to go to senior high school. 60 years after independence high school upper secondary was just the preserve of the rich. If you are poor, you could not go. How do we create all the spaces necessary for everybody to go. We have to go to California, we have to look at year round schools, and we implemented year round schools in Ghana. That means we divided all the students into three tracks. At any point in time, two of them are in school. We were then able to create space for every single child to go to senior high school. So as I speak with you we began with what before three senior high school they were only about, or the introduction of year round schools, only 800,000 students were in school. So we removed the cost barrier and increased access through year round schools, we've been able to grow secondary enrollment from 800,000 to 1.3 million. We have also increased gender parity. Before the introduction of free senior high school parents in deprived communities had to make a choice between the girl going to high school or the boy, invariably towards the boy. So our gender parity at the time was 0.92, 9.99. Next year there will be a gender parity in Ghana at the secondary education level, all because we're able to use leapfrogging strategies for access. Because if you don't, you're going to sit there and lament and say, oh, developing country, no buildings, we can do this. And when you begin to think about leapfrogging strategies, when a sense of agency is created to borrow from around the world, then what was deemed impossible then become possible. So instead of say I don't have buildings begin to think why not year round schools. Why can't you reduce the enrollment of student in a classroom through year round school concept or even in California, a developed nation, a state in a developed nation in 1994. When high school became four years, they had to use year round, then we could also use him. And that's what we're doing. Beyond that, we've also used technology and open education resource in transforming our education system. Communities with access to the Internet has what we call the I box. It is a server that emits local Wi-Fi and with that student can access quality content. And that is in that box that we call the I box made in Ghana for Ghana. And that is breaking frontiers. Stem education is being boosted through virtual labs. So instead of waiting for a well lot to be constructed, we're able to have this quality labs, virtual lab developed and schools have access to them. And when there's no internet, they use the I box for connectivity so that they can use lab activities. So we know that we need to boost STEM education. We know we don't have other resources. Then we look at technology to see how we bring about that transformation. Adult education is not being implemented in Ghana. It was never done. Now we are doing it. So those who could not get access to go to secondary school during their time now have access to adult education through an agency called the complimentary agency. So in the case of Ghana, like many other developing countries, when we are talking about SDG goals, we have a major decision to make in terms of how do we even allow the students to be in their seats so that we can talk about SDG. If they are not going to school, how do you educate them the way the SDGs want us to educate them? We also have two universities that focus on environment and sustainable development and everything about those institutions about how the country meets the SDG goals. So there are major, major things taking place and you said an advice to other ministers. So let me jump there. When I became Minister for Education in Ghana, one of the things I realized was that the Ghanaian education system, unlike the US, is more specialized at the upper secondary. You either be general arts, that means you are not doing serious science subjects. You may also do visual arts and you are boxing. Once you do visual arts, universities do not allow you to do engineering. They think you don't have the foundation for it. And as a result, we are not able to increase the number of students who pursue engineering, even if you counsel them, the universities will not allow them. So I have this story that I always tell, that this young man called Kojo, Kojo had a dream and God was speaking to him and God told him, Kojo, you're going to be the best engineer in the world. And then Kojo says, God is not possible. No, not possible at all. And then God said, I created you, I know it's possible. I said, no, no, no, God, it will never be possible. And God said, why? He said, I'm a young man growing up in Ghana. In high school and pursuing the visual arts pathway, the universities will never allow me to do engineering. But what Kojo didn't know was that God knew he was going to travel to America. And when he comes to America, the universities will not tell him you cannot do engineering. They will give him the opportunity to prove himself. He can go to a community college, take math and science and physics courses. If he does, he can become an engineer. So in Ghana, what I decided to do was that I was going to create an incentive program for universities that will allow to do pre-engineering. And I was going to give them grants, the same way that I got my grants to do charter school. So with a grant, I was going to incentivize them to do something that they would never do. So I published in the newspapers that any university that wants to do pre-engineering can apply for their grants. All of them applied. And at the end, I only have resources for two universities. And today, Kojo's dream is possible. Students are now pursuing pre-engineering in Ghana, and they did not do science at the upper secondary level. So I believe that we have to find a way to get people to do what they would normally not do, instead of saying this is not possible in a developing country. The American system allows people to be incentivized to do so many things that would not do normally. If I didn't get a grant, I wouldn't have opened a charter school. I couldn't have done it. But the federal grant that I got enabled me to develop a charter school. So now we have Ghana University that can't wait next year to start pre-engineering. Something nobody ever thought would happen in Ghana. So I believe it's just a way, finding a new way, a new approach incentivized people to get them to do things that they typically will not do. We have an opportunity in Ghana. We have students who are so respectful. They sit in the classroom, do everything you tell them to do. You enter the classroom. They will stand up unless you tell them to sit. They won't say, wow, different. From South Los Angeles. Very, very different. So I always tell people that if you cannot make the Ghanaian education system one of the best in the world, then the problem is with adults who are in charge of the education system and not the children. So we are making great strides and we are making great progress in Ghana. And I believe it would transform my education system to compete with the rest of the world. We have children who are ready to learn. They are begging us. Can you teach me? In South LA, I have to beg the children, can I please teach you? I remember one of the students who was sleeping in my class and I woke him up early in the morning at Manuel's high school. I woke him up and said, hey, wake up. Why are you sleeping in my class? He looked me up and said, am I bothering you? He said, look at all the children who are making noise in your class. I'm sleeping. Am I bothering you? Ghanaian students are wide awake and they are saying, bother me, give me the opportunity ourselves. So I'm excited about my work in Ghana and the opportunity that has been given me by Nannadu Dankwere Pufa, the president of the Republic of Ghana. Thank you so much. Tremendously inspiring. And we can't wait to visit all those kids and the system in Ghana and a very entrepreneurial minister indeed. And leapfrogging strategies, incentive programs, there is lots to do. And thank you so much. And I am in the role of reminding all panelists to stick to the five minutes, please. So that we can get the most out of this panel. We want to make sure that we get everyone's views. We have a lot to share. So with that, please. Her Excellency, Ms. Joanna Smobody, State Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from Finland. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, dear participant, your Excellencies. It's a pleasure to be here, honestly. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to explore a bit what kind of educational thinking we have in Finland. UNESCO's Assistant Director, Stefanie, I mentioned happiness and I was really happy to hear that word, because in a fifth time in a row we have been the happiest country in the world, according to UN rankings. If you go to the streets of Helsinki or any other city in Finland, you would ask a random guy or whoever on the streets of Helsinki that are you happy or do you consider that you are the happiest country in the world? They would probably say that no, we can't be the happiest country. How is that possible? Because we have really critical mindset as well when it comes to societal issues. And I think that explains, it's one way to explain why we have such a kind of a vigilant societal system. But the factors behind this happiness, it wasn't so much about how happy emotions we have. It was factors that provide people to feel content to the societal system, good governance, certain services such as education or social services or health services. And that contentment I think is the kind of key to this happiness, why we have succeeded in those rankings. It's not something that we are just happy by nature in Finland. Everything has been achieved by deliberate political decisions and investing in those issues. So we are not just happy or good in education sector because we happen to be Finns. It's about policies and hard work, how we have actually got the system. Yesterday I had a chance to discuss a lot about education and I always say that Finland was a relatively poor agrarian society after the Second World War. And that was the time when we started to invest in people because as a country of now 5.5 million people, not so much at that time. We benefited as a society that we taught everyone to read, for example, girls and boys, poor and rich. It was good for our TDP that we invested in people and human capital. So it has to be kept in mind that of course we can't just place Finnish model to any other country as such, but we can learn from Finnish experience that we can build society by deliberate choices from relatively poor circumstances. You asked us to recall something that we remember our childhood classroom days. I started my primary school in 1983 actually in west part of Finland and what I remember that we played a lot. We had lots of outdoor activities. We just discussed with my colleagues from the Ministry of Education that even when it was raining we had our raincoats and rubber boots and we had to play outside. So that's one thing I remember and warm school meals. I remember that was a highlight of the day that we had a little break and we had warm school meals every day. And that's actually something that I think that has reflected heavily on the whole of society, what we are today, the prosperity we are enjoying today. It's partly also because of the education sector and how we have been invested in that. I'm almost emotional when I talk about this because it's such an important issue. You might wonder why Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs was talking about education here today. I would say and argue that education for Finland is one of our strongest soft power assets. It's something that we have employed in our development policies. It's something that we are often talking about when meeting other foreign ministers. So it's not only about education, it's about global influence, what we try to have and cooperation we try to have within the sector. On a more personal note, I have a little background in education sector myself. In early 2000s I was Deputy Chair of Helsinki Education Board and we got to decide very concrete tangible issues in that board. What kind of school buildings we have to plan? What kind of planning do we have to have on school buildings? What kind of spaces students need to learn efficiently? What kind of resources do we need in the city budget to improve the subjective right of a child to get the best learning environment they can? That was a very good learning for me and myself. On that level, city level, municipal level, the real decisions are made. And it also reflects, I hope, to the national level decision makers to listen to the local levels as well in education. So with this kind of little introduction, I would say and argue that Finland strongly believes in the power of Bestie G4 to transform societies. And that is what we do by heart ourselves. It has transformed us. And education and training, research and innovation are critical in the comprehensive sustainability transition as well. And for the development of inclusive and resilient societies. This is why the SDG7, sorry, 4.7 must guide our work now and in the future. The transformative learning is understood as a combination of knowledge, attitudes, values and action. It promotes active global citizenship where everyone is prepared and equipped with the necessary skills to take action for a more sustainable future. We need also this transformative learning for everybody, regardless of their social background or religion or age or profession. In reality, we must learn new things all the time as we go. And we also have to unlearn certain things. Industrial society and its schemes were mentioned earlier in this event. And I think that there's lots of unlearning we have to do from the old ways of thinking and even maybe sometimes teaching. We have to adapt ourselves. All parts of society need to be harnessed for this transition. And education needs to be partnered with civil society as well. That is something that we work quite hard on. This government has made some commitments to inclusive decision-making. So we have promised that we try to include in a consultative manner every other stakeholders in society. Decision makers, yes, but also civil society, actors, universities and private sector to discuss what are the best ways and models that our decision-making would be fact-based. So we firmly have stated in our government program that we want to have fact-based decision-making in place. And education sector plays a tremendous role in guaranteeing that as well. Teachers were mentioned here, which is something that I would like to say a few words about. In Finland, we truly cherish, respect and value our teachers and our teacher education. Teachers are the key pillar in good quality education and they are also key in transforming learning communities once they are supported and empowered to innovate and adapt practices. So they must be also recognized as pedagogical experts and key partners in educational planning. So we need teachers' wisdom and know-how when we plan education policies. And they also need opportunities for continuous professional development, sharing of good practices and peer learning as well. In Finland, we want to ensure that all citizens are equipped with future skills and we are investing heavily in continuous learning, science and innovation and aimed at raising the educational level of society as a whole, as this is a key in boosting equity, well-being and green growth as well. Our ambitious goal is that 50% of young adults will have a higher education degree by 2030. And as part of our efforts, we aim at increasing our participation in early childhood education and care and we have extended the minimum school-leaving age to 18 years. Dear colleagues, in Finland, sustainable development is integrated in all levels of our education. Road-based competencies such as critical thinking and multiliteracy are pivotal when solving global challenges. And in Finland, these are emphasized in a cross-disciplinary manner in our national core curricula. Since the capacity to always learn new things will be the key, learning to learn is also one of transversal competencies in Finland starting with early years. Phenomenon-based learning requires collaboration of teachers and new learning environments as well, which extends beyond the classroom. And we have launched a project on sustainability education, which actually invites the entire basic and upper secondary education to integrate sustainability into schools' operational culture. And as one of the major reforms in Finland, we have also recently updated our entire system of continuous education. The reform is still ongoing, but it was prepared as a parliamentary process. We don't aim to create a systemic way to re- and upscale the working age population. So all this supports our aim in Finland to achieve also carbon neutrality by 2035. I think it's one of the most ambitious targets globally that we have set up for ourselves. I admit that it's not easy. We have to work really hard, but that's something that we need education sector as well and science, scientific communities and universities in this work. So to conclude, there is a need for creating positive narratives and sustainable hope these days. And the message of hope should be also to permit our approach to sustainability. There's a lot of cynicism also in society. So society is a global discussion, but I think we don't have afford to be cynical. We have to have hope in our minds. And education is also, it's so much more than, it's a fundamental human right, but it's even more. It is a foundation for equity, innovation and prosperity, underpinning the entire 2030 agenda actually. So that is why I'm happy that the UN Summit on Transforming Education will recognize education as an investment in sustainable future as well. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. And so much to learn from, from how things have succeeded. Thank you so much. It's not only hard work, it's also investing in people investing in happiness. And, and it's not coincidence that you played when you were, when you were a girl, and that's how you learned. So, so thank you so much for learning and a lot of richness needs to be digested from all the extraordinary work you're doing. I would love to invite His Excellency Francis from SECA, Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Technology from Belize. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. It's a great honor and pleasure to, to join you this afternoon. Of course, I wish to acknowledge the distinguished colleague ministers. Thank you to Columbia University for, for hosting us. Mr. Jeffrey Sacks for your kind invitation. Belize welcomes this opportunity to participate in this most critically important and timely discussion on transforming education in the context of sustainable development. Belize considers itself a leading voice and actor on this issue of our time, sustainable development. This is reflected in our national development agenda in our economic policies and our education sector plan. Belize recently negotiated and announced the Blue Bonds arrangement, which is a first of its kind, innovatively addressing three global emergencies, sovereign debt, marine conservation and financing flows to combat climate change. The Blue Bonds arrangement has established a model for coordinated and transparent conservation governance, integrating state, community, NGO and private sector best practices. The Blue Bonds arrangement accelerates Belize's echo marine conservation programs, elevating the protection of our barrier reef system and protecting 30% of our ocean space. The comprehensive marine spatial plan is fully funded for the benefit of long term national development, including the well-being of fisher folk coastal communities and the pivotal tourism sector. I share this with you to demonstrate to you that we in Belize are fully committed to transforming our country through sustainable development policies and goals. Central to this effort, of course, is education. The Ministry of Education therefore plays a lead role in advancing mission 4.7, education for sustainable development, global citizenship education, environmental education, climate education, peace and human rights education, equity and inclusion. These are all fundamental components of Belize's education sector plan 2021-2025. The vision statement has set out in that plan states that Belize's education system will be inclusive of high quality, accessible and equitable, technologically driven and capable of fostering the development of good productive citizens. The system will be accountable and effective in providing the support necessary to allow students regardless of individual or family characteristics to achieve their full personal and academic potential and to contribute positively to national development. As stated in our plan, curriculum is the foundation of education. On the surface, it is comprised of a list of topics, objectives and strategies that are used by teachers to deliver content and assist students in developing a prescribed set of skills. But on a deeper level, it is society's way of importing the knowledge, capacities, beliefs and attitudes that will lead to a desired social and economic state. Therefore, when there is no alignment between the curriculum being delivered and the aspirations of the country, education becomes irrelevant and national development is compromised. The world changes at a rapid pace and so what we teach and learn and how we teach and learn must constantly evolve. This reality calls for building adaptability, innovation and resilience. Therefore, curriculum instruction and assessment must be designed to promote deep learning, to focus on what students are able to do with the knowledge that they acquire and the extent to which they are able to think critically and to solve problems in a healthy, productive and sustainable manner. Furthermore, curriculum instruction and assessment must be aligned to each other. They must integrate technology to increase impact and they must be relevant to the needs of students and to national development. Now Leslie has given a very impassioned plea for early childhood education and think equal and I want to add my voice very loudly to that plea. In beliefs, we have embraced think equal. We believe that investing in early childhood education is one of the best investments that you can make in education. As Leslie so rightly pointed out, those investments are reflected at every other level of the education system. So it's critically important for all of us to understand and appreciate the critical importance of investing in those early formative areas where we do have an opportunity to guide the value system of our children. So we joined very clearly the call for governments, policymakers, education communities to adopt the think equal program. We support strongly Pope Francis' call for an ecological approach to education. And of course, when we talk about prosperity, prosperity, people and the planet, these are all interlinked. The reality is that we cannot have one without the other. There can be no prosperity unless we are investing in our people and investing in the future of our planet. So those are critically important and equally in closing equally important to transformative education is ensuring that as governments, we are recognizing and prioritizing under serve sectors. For us in education in Belize, this means that we are enacting policies and investing resources in early childhood education, special education and student welfare, including a national healthy start feeding program. We are particularly proud of our education upliftment project. Together we rise, which provides a comprehensive targeted intervention for students and schools in vulnerable at risk communities. Overall wraparound services include provision of school meals, uniforms, footwear, school supplies and resources, textbooks, digital devices, access to reliable internet services, school transportation and upgrading of school infrastructure. My friends in the final analysis, it is abundantly clear that we cannot separate transformative education from the SDGs. They are directly linked one to the other. The policies, actions and decisions of ministries of education. And as minister from Finland said, it's not just education. The ministries, the national leaders, the ministries of foreign affairs all have to be on board. And their policies and actions and decisions must reflect this understanding that SDGs and transformative education cannot be separated. So let us act now. Thank you. We need at least a day of a panel with each one of you. There's so much richness and we just can't get enough of you. And I would love to ask the one and only Jeffrey Sachs to please comment and share remarks. Before we continue with the ministers speaking about going beyond silos, we have Jeffrey Sachs. I've heard an incredible set of remarks minister and to state secretary also I only caught the last two remarks, but I heard our wonderful ministers from Ghana and Greece yesterday. I hope we have a chance to minister one of my favorite countries to have a chance to speak together but like everything in this week I'm just running frazzled and I'm expected at the UN, I think five minutes ago so I'm, I'm going to be very, very quick and brief. Let me say first of all that this transforming education summit is the best thing that's happened at the UN, certainly since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. This is so important, wonderful, inspiring. Thank you, Stefania. Thank you so much. This is your leadership and it is UNESCO's leadership and it is the secretary general and deputy secretary generals insight that we need to move education not only up the agenda, but to the top of the agenda. Every word that was said here, technically is exactly right, which is that without education, forget everything else, forget economic development, forget peace, forget sustainability, period. And there's not a chance for any country that doesn't educate all its kids. That's not possible. That's not true 50 years ago or 100 years ago there were other jobs. You could kill the soils, and most people were in subsistence work and education was a luxury. This is those are the days of the past. In the future, if kids are not in school and learning. And if adults aren't continuing to learn. We're going to have a session on social and emotional learning and I think even more than children being in social and emotional learning, I would like the world leaders to have some social and emotional learning. Because they're sometimes worse than children in the sandbox. Honestly, they're provoking each other. They're bigger than you will defeat you. And these are countries with nuclear warheads. It's insane. So a little social emotional learning and even happiness would help among the world leadership. But one of the things that needs to come out of this summit is actually the means to support these wonderful ministers. And Stephanie and I talk a lot about this. We need financing. And if I could ask our wonderful state secretary to speak with your absolutely wonderful commissioner in the European Commission, Commissioner or blind and who is herself a teacher, and a wonderful person. We need the European Union to put in its cooperation agenda, education finance at the very top. We should have a partnership between the European Union and the African Union where Europe says, we will be with you to make sure every child is properly educated, at least all the way through upper secondary. It's the minimum that Europe should do for itself by the way, much less for your neighbor with 1.4 billion people and growing rapidly. We're 40% of the continent is school age, and the kids are not in school. And the sign that greets us at the UN it shook me I told you it shook me yesterday morning, the new study of UNESCO and UNICEF and the World Bank, that only one in three 10 year olds can read a paragraph and understand it. Are we going to leave it talk about sustainability sustainability means that the children can pick up on their lives. And if they can't read. They can't. And if they can't do arithmetic they can't. And if they can't continue on to vocational education or higher education, they can't. So, I'm really every moment at your disposal we're going to get the financing, because I want the ministers to say this is what we need, we need this many schools we need qualified teachers we need this training. We need this wonderful program of Leslie everywhere we need practical funding so we can do the job because right now the kids aren't learning. And the kids aren't even in school. And when the government of Ghana said okay universal phenomenal initiative. Suddenly the schools are inundated and you have to make two sessions and there aren't enough teachers and there isn't a budget, and Ghana's budget is like this. We're going to help the finance minister with Ghana's budget, and we need to help the IMF to understand, we need enough money for this gentleman to do his job so that all the kids can be in school it's arithmetic. So that's another thing I'd like our leaders to go back to school and do some arithmetic, some SDG arithmetic. There's some financing that goes along with what we are doing, because that's all I do for a living is arithmetic. I know that the governments, the low income countries like Malawi can't afford. They just can't afford it, even if they spend the entire budget. All the budget the national budget on education it would not be enough to ensure that all the kids are in school. It's arithmetic. And you know the IMF and the World Bank and what we call the civilized world signed programs that absolutely leave half the kids out. And that's viewed as normal. And by the way, leave people without health care and many other things that were declared to be human rights 75 years ago with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because we don't do arithmetic. I suspect I'm not sure, but I think they know how to do arithmetic in the US Treasury I'm not sure but I think so. But they don't want to. Because if they wanted, if they, if they did the arithmetic they'd say oh, the US is awfully rich but it should give a little bit for some others. They don't want that. They really don't want that by the way. I'm sorry to tell you, there isn't good will right now. There is social justice. There is a world demanding social justice there are global goals that have been set. There are responsibilities of all countries, and no nonsense. If we're going to save the world, we have to start here. So that's what's going to come out of this summit I'm sure the inspiration of the leaders in this. It's a crying need to do things differently. And Finland has an incredible education system, and it's been at the top of the world, it. So you have so much to show and help. Also, but we need the financing to be able to get this done. So that, I think is is the, the first step. That's the world where we all need to learn non stop. And we need to have the means to do that. And we need to have then the content of what we need to learn. And that is specifically why we're here today, which is that we need to learn to be decent people. And that's not a crazy point Aristotle made that point in 2000 in 330 BC. He made the point that learning in the polis in the political community was central for creating the civic virtues that would enable the political community to function. And it doesn't just come out of nowhere. It has to be cultivated virtue in Greek is a reté, which means excellence. It's something to cultivate. And so we have to build even our capacity to be good people. That's the lesson of the Nicomachian ethics. It's not just there. It's not just a list of rules. It's cultivating our capacity to be decent people. And that's why mission 4.7 is so important. Partly it's technical. What are greenhouse gases. How does anthropogenic warming work. Why do we care. Okay. It's fine technical, but part of it is being citizens is respect for culture is a culture of peace. We don't have a culture of peace in the United States. We have shootings on my block, almost every week now. We've got 300 million handguns, and the United States is involved been involved in more than 100 military interventions since 1990. We don't have a culture of peace. We believe in war. We need a new education system. We don't like the Chinese. You know that, but I bet that a vast majority of Americans could not name two cities in China. They don't know anything about the Chinese. They know they're the enemy. That's all they know they read it somewhere. They heard it somewhere. We need an education system that teaches something about civilization about great civilizations like China. About why we can cooperate and need to cooperate about what Confucian virtue ethics relates to Aristotelian virtue ethics. And that these sages had similar ideas more than 2000 years ago and we can use them to build the world that we really need to build together, rather than provocation. I want speaker Pelosi to take a class in this. She didn't have to fly into Taiwan just to provoke, because we don't need provocation there are too many nuclear weapons. It's so dangerous. It's so mind bogglingly wrongly directed. So that's what mission 4.7 is about. And I'm going to get out of the way because it's going to become a lot happier as soon as I stopped talking. Because the next session is about happiness. And I didn't convey a lot of happiness in this I conveyed a lot of frustration and a lot of feeling that we need a different course. But it was already recognized 10 years ago by the UN member states. So happiness is not some glib, silly idea, it is a fundamental part of what we aspire to. And again, Aristotle had a good word for it. Eudemonia or ebdomonia, which meant a life of threat which means a life of thriving. And his answer, by the way, how do you achieve a good life? How do you achieve ebdomonia is you cultivate virtues. He didn't say you beat up the other one. You conquer their territory. You would steal whenever you can get away with it. Real happiness, real thriving comes from cultivating those excellences of citizenship, of friendship, of personal forbearance and restraint and cultivation of moderation. And so he linked well being happiness in Latin Beatuto, which Jesus talked about on the Sermon of the Mount. And Aristotle talked about and Confucius talked about as being in proper behavior with Ren as a good person in your mutual relations. So that's what we're after. We're going to hear from a number of experts on social and emotional learning. Our students and teachers are frazzled after the past three years. Everybody is on edge. I see it in my granddaughters classes and upheaval of the education system right here in New York City. Everybody is on edge after all this experience. We really need to pull together. And the SDGs are the wonderful way to do it. And target 4.7 is a special gift for us, because it took the time to step back and say it's not only kids in school and not only early childhood development and all those crucial things. But it's what's happening in the class to help make us better people to help us to have tolerance, respect, a culture of peace, a sense of global citizenship, a knowledge of the world that we are in today. So that's the next panel. But let me thank all of these wonderful ministers and state secretary for gracing us with your presence and for these wonderful remarks and to everybody participating in this gathering and special thanks really to Stephanie Giannini. You all know her but she is the mastermind behind this summit. And we're really going to work together to make sure that the legacy of these remarkable days continues. Thank you. Certainly, Professor Jeffrey Sachs is not worried about sugarcoating things. And that's why we love him so much. And but he's also determined, absolutely determined that to make this summit, the game changer, and we need to team up. So thank you so much, Professor Sachs. And we will continue to enjoy and learn from the wisdom of our ministers present. Please, if at all possible, let's share our remarks in five minutes. And thank you so much. I would love to invite her Excellency Nikki Keramevich, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs from Greece. Thank you so much. Your Excellencies, fellow ministers, ladies and gentlemen, it's a true honor and pleasure to be here in this room. And I want to start off by saying that I think none of us would be here today, had it not been for three people. His Excellency Honorable Ban Ki-moon, Stefania Janini, Professor Jeffrey Sachs. I think we owe it to the three of them that we're actually here. We're talking about transformative education. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your commitment to making this a better place. Thank you for your dedication to transforming education. Why are we talking about transforming education? I think we're talking about transforming education because we live in a world that's changing at a very, very rapid pace, extremely rapid. Think of the students who are now entering school. So they're six years old. They're going to be called upon to enter the workforce in 2038 or 2040. The world is going to be very, very different. And it's really hard to predict today in 2022 what the world is going to be like in 2040. So for us in government, it's really tough to equip the youngsters with the knowledge required. That's why we have to focus on something different. That's why we have to focus on skills. That's why the effort has to be to move from a knowledge-centric system to a skills-based system. And I want to share some thoughts on what we're doing in Greece in that direction. Three different points. Point number one on schools, point number two on vocation education training, and point number three on universities. First of all, in schools. In schools in Greece, we have revamped over 160 school curricula. We've changed everything. And the new approach is skills, cultivation of skills. And when I say skills, I mean critical thinking. I mean empathy. I mean problem solving. I mean collaborative work. So every single curriculum in Greece and Greek schools is focused on the cultivation of skills. And we have introduced, if I mentioned earlier, the need for schools to introduce climate change. In Greece, we have introduced a new subject matter, just like we teach math and history and gym and physics. We teach what we call the skills labs. What are the skills labs? It's a new subject matter introduced into the mandatory program of school. I want to emphasize the point that it's in the actual mandatory program. It starts at the age of four up until the age of 15. And it has four thematic axes. Number one, well-being, healthy lifestyle, sex education and other thematics. Number two, environment, climate change, protection and prevention of natural disasters. Number three, rights, respect for others, respect for diversity. Number four, action, STEM, STEAM, robotics, entrepreneurship, career guidance. These are thematics which are introduced into the mandatory school program. But because just as important as it is to be good in math, as Professor Sacks emphasized a while ago, it's equally important if I'm more important to know how to respect the person next to you to know how to not park in front of a ramp for people with disabilities. It's equally important and that's something that has to start from a very early age. So the skills labs are introduced in every single school of Greece. Pre-K elementary school, junior high school. And we're teaching English as of the age of four in every single public preschool of Greece. And so change comes with a change of mentality. And I want to share an experience I had a few months ago. I tried to visit as many schools as possible in Greece. I visited perhaps over 400 in the three years that I'm, that I have the honor of serving as a minister. So recently I was in a public school, in some remote place of Greece, outside of Athens. In the classroom, we're talking about a classroom with 17 year olds. I walk in, I go straight to the kids but I understand something's going on. They're watching something else. Something's going on. So they're like, look, look, you know, turn back. I was like, why, what's what's going on. So I turn around. And the classroom, this is a public classroom in Greece is connected with the European organization for nuclear research and the Greek Polytechnic School. This is a public high school in Greece. That's the future that our kids deserve interaction beyond borders education beyond borders skills. That's really the future that our kids deserve. So I talked about schools, vocational education and training. Extremely important segment of education. There what Greece has done is we have changed the model. We first go and look at what the actual needs of society are. For instance, one of the professions which is in most demand in Greece nowadays is web designers. So what we do is we go first and detect and the actual needs of the labor market and then we take that information to account. When we decide what specialties to offer through vocation education and training. Because we're really concerned about bridging the gap between education and the actual needs of society. And then the third pillar, higher education or universities. There, we have introduced a particular emphasis on apprenticeship on practical training on interdisciplinary joint degrees double degrees on entrepreneurship, a full fledged resume for startup companies for spin off companies. And then bridging the gap bringing closer education to the actual needs of the labor market. Moving up to my five minutes last three sentences. When we think about transformative education. Our take is that we have to start early. We have to think big, and we have to aim high. In this room, have a huge responsibility, huge to deliver to the world, a younger generation that is much, much better than ours, and we will succeed. Thank you. It must the Philly. It's, it's beyond beyond what we can, what we can grasp in such a short amount of time. And I would like to, to invite our, our excellent her excellency Agnes Nialongio, Minister of Education from Malawi. And then I will follow up with one question, but it's just a word. Good afternoon, all the way from Malawi, the warm heart of Africa, as we like to call it. The challenge with speaking last is that the constrictions of time apply more severely, as, as I'm sure you will see. So, in Malawi, last year we adopted our long term development plan, the Malawi 2063 Malawi 2063 is about Malawi's aspirations that by the time we get to 2063. We will be an inclusively wealthy, safe reliant, upper middle income country, fully industrialized. One or two things about Malawi. Just as you heard from Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Africa is very young. And within Africa, there are certain countries that have the fastest growing population Malawi is one of them. In the southern African region, it's an outlier in that sense. We grow at 3% per year. Currently, we are at about almost 20 million people. Now, that Malawi 2063 draws from our constitution, which has a whole section on the duties of the duty bearers the government what citizens of Malawi should expect from their government. And when you look at it, it is in effect like the SDGs. And as Minister of Education, my mandate starts from there. It is very clear what I ought to do as Minister and that is amplified in the Act Education Act, which clearly says, for example, that I have no business presiding over a sector that's divisive or that leaves children with disabilities behind the marching orders. Make sure you provide education services that have equity at the heart of it and that you are inclusive, even as you're, you're searching for to achieve the core business of education. So that chapter in our constitution that I talked about, if I was to speak in our Bantu lingua, it's about Umuntu. You have to reflect that. That's number one. So starting from there, our Malawi 2063 has the agenda 2063 of the African Union as a backdrop and the SDGs as a backdrop. When we then have developed our national education sector investment plan, which now with the Malawi 2063 because our investment plan as a sector was developed before the country got together and put together the long term development plan. That has now been incorporated into our first 10 year plan on the road to 2063 so that everything that Malawi aspires to do in education which boils down to the single biggest thing is that every Malawian child should have a minimum of 12 years schooling, which is basic all the way to secondary. So everything that we're doing incorporates already the SDGs. So I'm not going to talk about take them apart and so on because as Minister of Education, the plans we have already have that written into them. Now, let me give you statistics. I said that by 2063 we want to be an inclusive they will say upper middle income country that leaves no one behind. Right now as I speak Malawi has a 90% or 89% net enrollment for secondary for primary school. That on a 52% complete their primary school. Secondary school on a 15% of all the youth. Did I say that Malawi's population is three quarters or a little more than three quarters youth. Out of that, the biggest component is zero to 15. So as I'm telling you about the stats, remember that one. 20% only that ought to be in second grade school in second grade school and university and technical education is less than 1% but 2063 look out here we come Malawi. Yeah, so how, how is it going to happen. How is it going to happen. I think you asked at the beginning that what is it that you like about your job what's the best thing. I think the best thing for me being Minister of Education is that I'm leading a team that believes in themselves. At the bottom of many things, but we know we have faith in our ability to get there because he is why. When it comes to core business of education. We can deliver. And we have at the moment with the, again, let me look at what Jeff re succced, he talked about the 30% only 30% of children in law and middle income countries globally can read with comprehension a simple text in Sub Sahara Africa that drops to 10% and Malawi is among that. But we don't lose hope, because we know that Malawi used to have an education system that was going places, a system where when I first started school, long time ago, had that. And we know we can go back to that but the challenges. So we have a dream, and we have the stats have given you how do we get there, especially when only 10% of our children seem to learn anything from what we have at the moment. The task is big, but we think we have the answer and the answer that we've decided upon for when we're talking about transformation, let me also say this transformation is relative, and it's very context specific. When I, as Minister of Education, with only half the classrooms I need for primary school education right now as we speak, and less than half the primary secondary schools I need for secondary education. When I expand the infrastructure, that is transformation. The difference between being a Minister of Education in Malawi and the same Minister of Education in Switzerland where my children went to school is that in Malawi parents say, where is the school? When you tell us keep the girls in school, in Malawi they say where is the school to keep my girls in, whereas in Switzerland when we went we thought, which school shall we put our children in? What is the difference? What is transformation? It depends on where you're starting from. So, in Malawi, if we are going to lift secondary education from only being able to provide education for 15 of every 100 of our children, that is transformation. So, what are we looking for? We're looking for big time resources at all levels, but let me take a step back. We believe that some of the challenges we face because the fact that we have this resource challenge is the biggest. That doesn't mean we do not also have the traditional basic education type challenges, which as I said, I'm not going to spend time on because I know I have a competent team and if we have the bigger picture resource, we can do it and we will do it. But we need a bit of help and here's why. We believe that our North Star for transforming Malawi's education is revisiting how we do foundational skills. With foundational skills strengthened and changed to suit today's world, we believe will reduce dropouts. We believe will reduce repetitions. We believe the education system will become more efficient and more efficient because children are learning. So our core strategy for making sure that we start there. Not that we would know all other things, we'll continue those but we will with laser sharp focus fix on foundational skills and that has five basic elements. Number one, we're going to deploy our best teachers in the low grade classes of primary. Primary is one to four. Number two, we are going to look at improving the quality of teacher training and support to our teachers, teachers need to be appreciated. I'm speaking as a daughter of a head teacher at primary school who is long dead but he spent all his life as a teacher and so I know a thing or two about the life of the teacher in rural areas with 11 children and educating near all of them until one of them is standing here today to speak to you. So I know that teachers need to be appreciated and need to be given the resources so we intend to make that a core part of the search for foundational skills. Number three, we want to make sure that we review our curriculum so that it's not only relevant to the Malawi in 2063 but it's relevant to the ever changing aspirations of young people as we speak right now as I'm here Malawians are wanting us to bring back civics which used to be a subject when I went to school Malawians are wanting to introduce peace studies in our curriculum Malawians are wanting us to introduce anti corruption measures in the curriculum integrity is very important to Malawians I did say that one who is what captures it all. In short Malawians want an education that is anchored around the principles of one to for those who don't know sometimes we say Ubuntu but where the part of Africa where they come from we say Ubuntu. Before we are going to so curriculum review and resourcing. I want to take a moment on that because we have a curriculum that's reasonably strong, but when you do not have the resources to fully resource the curriculum it looks as though you don't have it. There's science curriculum but if you don't have resources to have laboratories science teachers textbooks, it looks like you're not teaching science and that's what we've been doing not been teaching science because we've not had the way we do to do it effectively. Then we also want to look at school feeding because we know that my nutrition and other health issues amongst our children prevent them from really learning when they come to school. Number five and final is that we know that because of the challenges of access limited space for learning. We know that it will take years and years before we find enough money to build enough classrooms. And how's every child in a classroom so we are putting together we have put together what we call a national blended face to face and digitalized learning program. And that has the partnership of fcdo the foreign and common with development office in the UK, the Royal Norwegian government VSO for those of you who know what that is one billion JBJ foundation and imagine worldwide our partners and we've developed this program, which is built around these five elements. And because these elements already have evidence that each one of them if you do things in a certain way it works, we've built it on what works what is known to work in evidence base so we know that if we really push ourselves we can do it and in 2063 is possible and it will happen that having said all that Malawi achieves 20% or more sometimes or less sometimes like now with covered of his national resource envelope towards education, even when we don't achieve that education has consistently been the top in our location of resources, it's always number one always. What is what what that is saying is that Malawians believe and know in their hearts of heart of hearts that education is the root to 2063 that we aspire to get. So, when all is said and done, it is frustrating as a Minister of Education to go to meetings such as this and always parade our challenges in the hope that somebody will release some resources that can get up if if Malawi's education system was a manual engine car or whatever. I would have said, we always ever get just enough help to get into neutral but never beyond. Is it because we don't have the capacity to know we don't have the capacity. We do have the capacity to do what and we know what we must do, but there's never enough. There's a lot of resources usually it's chosen, like say you get resources to do with teachers, but being a Minister of Education I was saying the other day jokingly but also seriously it's like being a master baker of a cake. Maybe you could say bread but I prefer cake. There's a number of ingredients that must be put together and put together in certain proportions and in a certain sequence to get what you need. So when you remove any one of them or remove some of what you need, you get what you get. And we've been getting what we get and 10% of 10 year olds being able to read is part of what we've got because what we've been able to do. What I'm saying all these I'll leave it on all I'm saying is when we talk about transforming education in low income countries, middle income countries, it's all about resources by the way, my colleague, Minister from Finland. I spend a lot of time watching and watching again and again, the video from the Finnish Finnish Education Minister. Sometimes I almost cry the last time I watched those three weeks ago as I was preparing to do a skit for on anti corruption. It is a beautiful thing to watch. It is it represents pushing the boundaries of possibility. But while you said it's not, I think you said it's about policy and hard work, definitely, but it's also about resources, because when you've exhausted all the resources you have and your generation is growing so fast and you're you're you're ready way at the bottom in terms of delivering education. What else can you do. Would you do it with papers from the beach. No, nobody has ever built a system and education system that's worth its name without resources. Three weeks ago, I had four members of Parliament from the Austrian from Austria, came to see me in my office. When they mentioned the annual budget, the Austrian annual budget for education, I nearly fell off my seat. 60 billion euros isn't that wonderful. And I know it is possible to get education because I was fortunate enough to work in international organizations including the UN. So my children got that education as Minister of Education. I just won the same for my social children in Malawi. So here is what I'm saying, countries such as Malawi, we cannot do it and get to that point where we change gear to the sixth gear without the massive resources. So this summit, if it's going to make any difference, it's got to look at the IMF and what they do. Here's what is at the heart of it. No transformation is possible without teachers. When IMF sets constrictions on wage bills for poor countries like Malawi, and you can't recruit the teachers you need, we only have half the teachers we need in secondary school as we speak as I stand here. If the wage bill increases because teachers are the biggest component of any civil service. And so we cannot recruit beyond a certain point because we'll overshoot our limit. And so how do you achieve SDG4, Madam Janini, SDG4 without teachers? SDG4 without teachers and why not remove that constriction. So transformation for anybody who cares means IMF needs to come to the table. Because why are they not engaging with us? Why are they not engaging with us to look at why some of the system that's in place today is designed to fail us. And that's the long and short of it, I'm afraid. And that's why some of us are very frustrated, passionate but very frustrated and sometimes we look very angry because we are angry. There's no, there's nothing to smile about because we are capable, but we need our hands untied. We need the blindfolds taken off because we know where to go. 2063 in Malawi is very possible, but the global community must do its part. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're so powerful. Master Baker or superheroes right here. And thank you so much. Definitely resources are absolutely key. There's no transformation without teachers. That's for sure. We will base on the foundational skills. And yes, also transformation is definitely relative to context and the context specific. So we need to understand that. Thank you so much to all of you for for being here. We really want more of you. But unfortunately we have to go to the next but fortunately also because it's going to be extraordinary. Radhika, would you please share with us. Thank you so much. Thank you also to Dina for moderating this excellent panel. Thank you for doing your hard work and making this come together. So we will start with our next panel on taking this deeper because without TSD and without happiness and without a CL I think this whole panel will be incomplete so let's move on to our next panel on happiness and social emotional learning by the happiness Council there is also lunch served so we will at the end of the panel discussion for panel to we will also have lunch. So please stay on and let's move over to the happiness panel. This is Alison Bellwood. I am the create creator of a program called the world's largest lesson. And I am absolutely delighted to be here at Columbia and to witness all of the sharing from the ministers to hear from Stephanie from Jeff as well, because for the last seven years, I have been waving the flag for the SDGs in the classroom, working on the ground with teachers and with kids getting this little badge into their hearts and minds. And so it's so exciting to have heard from those ministers that we are finally cutting through. And we've done that really from the ground up. And finally, the top has recognized what's happening. So what we're going to be doing today is actually shifting the conversation a little bit. We're going to be focusing on what happens on the ground and real experiences of real teachers who are working hard every single day to lead the education system. We're going to be focusing on social and emotional learning, because over the last seven years, all of the work we've been doing with children understanding the girls, how they feel about them and how they want to respond to them shows us that we can teach kids how we can teach them how to kind of access the knowledge of sustainability and climate change. And they can get that knowledge. But we will never move towards full sustainable development unless kids are really ready to take the actions that are needed. And we can only do that with social and emotional learning. So, got a really exciting panel. And I'm going to introduce you to them one by one. We have Dr Lara at kin, who is the editor of the world happiness report. She is a professor and lab director at the helping and happiness lab at Simon Fraser University so she is your expert on happiness. We have Lisa Vortman, who is the marketing director for good humor, who is a new partner to me a project everyone's helping us to bring social and emotional learning and happiness to the classroom. We have Luca Perry, founder and CEO of the learning future and founding member of Caranga, which is a global collaboration of organizations teaching social and emotional learning. And I'm with Donald, an educator and education consultant from Jamaica so we are spread across the world here, and there is an empty seat. And I would like to invite really Hollerhan who is here in the audience he's joined us and we decided to invite him to the panel he's an LGBTQI rights activist with UNICEF. He is old. He told me earlier he's never done a panel in person. He's only ever done them online, but he, of all of us in the room has more lived experience of education right now, and any of us. And so he is very welcome to join the panel, and we would love him to share. Please join the panel. So what we're going to do is I'm going to, I'm not going to kind of do the traditional, ask the question and then everyone responds in turn. We want to build this conversation up. And we want everybody to feel able to contribute. If they want to, we're going to explore social emotional learning we're going to explore what it is in practice. We want to consider the role and available evidence that happiness and well being plays in supporting learners to develop the skills and the values that we need for them to drive sustainable development. And really importantly we cannot forget that many children across the world have been out of school for two years or more. We need to link this conversation back to COVID recovery and what that needs to be like from now on in so let's get started. I think I'm going to go first to Luca. And just, can you help us define social emotional learning, talk about how it connects to happiness and well being. And hello colleagues, great to be with you all. Yeah, I feel very privileged to be here in fact. I don't think that a case needs to be made I think we've had Jeffrey we've had the ministers all speak to this really powerful but what specifically are we talking about. Well, the social emotional learning also is known by many names, too many names, non cognitive skills, you know, sometimes soft skills in the business sector, but really they are the fabric of learning itself. And so this idea when we, how do we understand ourselves self awareness how do we regulate our emotional state. How do we interact, you know have, you know social awareness and relationship skills and then ultimately, how do we become good citizens ethical decision making, you know and so the way that we feel how connected we are. And also many of course the cognition is always part of this piece. And the one thing I would say even though we're talking about social and emotional learning. There are all these false dichotomies that exist. So of course how we feel influences how we think. And as an educator myself you see this really clearly when when young people in particular a dysregulated emotionally. It's pretty difficult to enter any kind of optimal flow state of learning. And so we've I think we've heard about access gaps so far from, you know, our political leaders. And of course there's an so you have this access challenge but also you have this engagement challenge, even in countries like Australia. No we have an engagement problem, a significant engagement problem. And so this idea of allowing people to attend to who they are how they feel, how they interact with each other, particularly in this as you said Alison, post pandemic, you know where we've been told to socially distance when of course it always should have been physical distancing with deep social connectedness and so I'll finish with the questions change when we start to talk about social emotional learning and elevating it into our learning systems. We start to say things not about what do you think or what question or show me your learning with say things like how are you feeling right now, or how socially connected are you. How are you going with your friendships at this point. And so those questions become more and more integral into the learning process. And we also see long term impact. And we also see an increase in academic results as well. So with that, you can, you can see what Jeff meant when he said, perhaps some of our political leaders might need to have a bit of this learning, because it is so holistic, so complete. I'm going to go to Rory now, and just ask Rory to respond to, to how Luca has defined social emotional learning and kind of ask you. Are you, do you feel you're receiving that kind of education and how, how would you like to respond to the way he has set that up. I personally feel that in schools, it is so important post pandemic to receive. There's a big argument at the moment. Do we talk, do we catch up on these skills that were missed out on as a result of school closures over the last two to three years, or to be allowed children to be children. Because you have one chance in your lifetime to be a child, and you can always return to school, or to a nighttime class to catch up on that biology lesson that you never learned. But you can never go to an evening class to learn about or experience the richness and the pure individuality and just exciting experiences that comes with being a child. And I think that we have to remember that we are children first. We are children who cannot take on so much pressure, who need to be free to explore life and learn about themselves and the people around them and the world around them. And ensuring that we are emotionally well will better ensure further learning down the road. Thank you. I think that it's just so important to hear from you. You know, we can all assume so much. I'm a parent I assume a lot about what my children are thinking and feeling, but we have to, we have to ask and we have to listen really carefully to young people in order to be able to make this work. So thank you. Laura, can you help us? Can you help kind of connect us back to the previous panel in terms of like, how does this really root itself in Mission 4.7, back to ESD, you know, we're kind of going to see cycles I think with this. Yeah, I, SEL development is really trying to build up a competent, complete person I think it's pushing us to think beyond the curriculum. And I think there were some really amazing words said about how our education should not system should not just teach the skills and competencies we want in a curriculum but the curriculum should be bigger that it should model the, how we want people to interact with one another and how we want them to view themselves and what we can envision for a better society. And I can go into the research if you like about how kind of building these capacities really opens up our mind when we're terrified when we're angry we see a very narrow world. But when people feel calm and comfortable and connected and happy, then we can kind of understand more information but build better relationships with the world around this and there is abundant information from the world happiness report and elsewhere, showing that people are happier, they build better relationships, they earn more money, not that that is the ultimate goal but it that that comes out in the literature as well, that they're more concerned and involved in the environment that they're more engaged citizens in their local and larger context and so I think it really ties back these ideas together the SEL is kind of the foundational skills we want students to have people to have when they're engaging in 4.7 and their communities at large. Yeah, and I think that if, if we consider we consider now and we also consider the future, all of the things you've described help us to imagine a world where if children are receiving this from age three upwards, then the conditions will be set for all of the creative thinking, all of the problem solving that we're going to need of them. They can't be creative if they're not comfortable they can't think beyond where we are now, if they're not comfortable and happy. So, thank you for that. I would love to find out a little bit more about the role the SEL is literally playing in the classrooms right now. Rachel works on the ground in Jamaica in some very challenging situations and I'd love Rachel to share a bit more about the work that she's doing. Thank you Alison Hello everyone. Greetings from Jamaica. There's a very young artist in Jamaica her name is Coffey, and she sings a song and the lyrics are all about gratitude she says gratitude is a must. And we know once we start with gratitude we automatically start to feel better. So let me just say thank you for allowing me to be here today and to share my personal experiences of what is taking place in a country, small island developing state like mine. So, I think I'm very lucky in the sense that I get to work in edgy spaces, and I don't say classrooms or school halls or anything, but spaces, underserved communities, schools, infant departments, high schools, you name it, I'm there. And I think what I've realized in the last few years is that in countries like mine, children were grown up or we were grown up with the notion that we should be seen and not heard well I'm not a child but children should be seen and not heard. And I think this has literally filtered through our educational landscape. And what has happened is that our youth, our children have not had a voice in anything that concerns them. And that has been absolutely detrimental. So, pre the pandemic, what we started to do was have fun. So I built a company around fun it was called fundaciones. It was a bilingual program, but fun remain at the center of everything we did. And people looked at me and were like, what are you doing, you want children to come to school and have fun. It's like, absolutely. Well, why are we going to remember what they're doing they're going to get lost in it they're going to just forget about all the trials and tribulations that they face. And that was not necessarily as appreciated pre pandemic as it was post pandemic. And, you know, we would do things like mindfulness, something that I call the wiffle, which is what I feel like expressing, and people just didn't understand it. Then 2020 happens and then everyone starts to go like, oh my gosh, we can't connect. And, you know, thankfully our policymakers are starting to understand the very detrimental and archaic effects of what has happened. So I want to share with you the story of a little boy that I've worked with called a Johnny if you alone. So a Johnny lives in a very underserved community in Kingston, Jamaica. And a Johnny was one of those students who was not able to engage in academic studies. He's about nine, eight, nine years old now, once the pandemic hit so they had no devices to connect with they had no internet if they had internet they had no devices and vice versa. It could not engage. And what happened is we were fortunate enough to create an after school and out of school program we defied the odds we went in there, despite people saying no public gathering. Hope I don't get in much trouble for that. But we did what we had to do and we engage those children. And, you know, one of the things that we prioritized in those programs was the wiffle and mindfulness. And every teacher looked at me and said, that's not what we need to focus on we need to focus on the literacy and the numeracy. And I said no, please also remember we have to focus on it. And one day, there was massive shootings and the teachers could not get into the community. Thankfully, I was a lot closer and I was able to get into the community and start the kids off. So there I am I pull up to the center, and I literally see one of my kids waving to me aggressively so I'm literally taking out my phone to record just how excited he was to see me. When I see a man beside him literally his hand is in his head, he is distraught so I put away the phone naturally and I said, oops, I guess the shootings today are a lot more serious than we thought because someone must have passed. So we go inside we get started and we get started with the wiffle. And the first thing that comes out of a Johnny's mouth is this, what I feel like expressing today is that I want to avenge my dad's murder. So the wiffle is a safe space there's no comment there's nothing to say you just literally say, thank you for sharing. Welcome to the next student, Keisha, and Keisha starts telling us about what happened now when a Johnny's dad was shot. And I mean she gets into the graphic and gory details. And literally after working with these children for weeks and months, I had no idea that this was their reality. They come and they smile and everything looks nice and dandy. And it wasn't until we were able to have an opportunity for them to express and say wholeheartedly what was on their mind that we were able to say all right stop we can't push math today. We can't work on work on our vocabulary today, because there is something else that is much bigger that's being triggered by what's happening to these students. Thankfully, you know we're able to call in psychologists but if we don't address those issues, that vicious cycle of criminality of violence continues and those same children are preyed upon, and we can't advance right. I mean, thankfully for strategies like WIFL for strategies like mindfulness for strategies like we were talking earlier Luca, you know emotional check-ins, we are able to offer that support to children and we're also able to realize a lot of things that we didn't as teachers. So that gives you a little bit of perspective I hope not too much about what is taking place on the ground and how SEL is really transforming that. Thank you. And of course, that's a terrible situation for children to be growing up in. It is terrible, but it's the reality. But it's the reality and the reality for children and other parts of the world is their own unique story too. We're creating those conditions that are straight kind of clean and enabling them to just share with no judgment, no question, it can expose an enormous amount of what's going on inside. Luca, can you, do you have any more kind of strategies that you're seeing used in the classroom that you'd like to share? Yeah. Thank you so much, Rachel, and it's inspiring work. There's lots, I mean, one of the things I fundamentally believe is that the principles are few, but the methods are many. And I think we've just heard from Rachel, the context is clean. You know, young, there are things that are universal like agency, the ability to feel in control of your own emotions, your own life, your own learning. That I think is, that's a universal principle, but the methods of course will be different. And so what I see a lot in our work at Caranga and elsewhere is, is it that we can talk as much as we like about these ideas, but it's until we embody until we experience them. And I think that, again, Jeffrey made the very clear point that actually it starts with adults. And so we've got a great program for students and they have this wonderful experience and then they go into a classroom where the teacher is not yet expressing, you know, using these practices. So I'm a big fan of lots of different practices and many different programs. There's some of the kernels I think are really possible because a teacher is nothing, you know, is many things, but certainly they are a practitioner. It's about the doing because young people will be waiting for you on Monday morning regardless if you're prepared or not. And so certainly emotional check-ins really powerful using great principles like with creating a safe space. The mood meter, I think some of the work out of Yale is really good by Professor Mark Brackett and other colleagues, but also even things like coming back to breath and mindfulness. So one thing, in fact, I'm going to do this to kind of take 30 seconds. I feel like it's the right moment to do this is I'm just going to share a practice that I've seen many great educators use. And it's just a mindfulness breathing activity will take 30 seconds only. It's called box breathing. Some of you may have done this before. The provocation I always use is who taught you to breathe. It's a really interesting question because not many of us have had this embodied experience. So if you've crossed your legs, that's wonderful. It's comfortable. Please uncross them. We're symmetrical beings. Isn't that remarkable? Find yourself comfortable in your chair supported, you know, on that seat. And if you're comfortable, close down your eyes. Otherwise, just soften your gaze and just listen to my voice. We're only going to breathe in and out and hold at the top and hold at the bottom to be for five seconds. Like to breathe in through your nose for five seconds. One, two, three, four, five. Hold your breath with your lungs full. Three, four, five and exhale. Two, three, four, five and hold. Exhale three, four, five again breathing in through your nose. Feel your belly and your chest expand. Hold and breathe out for five seconds and hold. One more time breathing in and hold and breathing out and feel your body just relaxed into the chair and hold two, three, four, five and just allow your breathing to come back to its natural rhythm. If your eyes are still closed, keep them closed. I'd like you to send a little piece of gratitude to a person that you're thankful is in your life, your partner, a friend, someone in your family, a colleague. And when you feel ready, please open your eyes and return back to the room. Thank you for diving into that practice, but that's one example Alison of how powerful even 60 seconds of mindfulness can be at the beginning of a lesson. And I think because our educators feel so overwhelmed, you know, with so much content to teach, we sometimes lose the beauty. You know, this investment we can make with 60 seconds will get us more mastery better outcomes in the end. And of course it's, it's this kind of experience in the classroom that is really difficult to describe it's really difficult to persuade parents and leaders that it's what we need because you can't really measure it so well. You know, it's just quite difficult to evidence isn't it. Laura, can you kind of help us on that but is that sort of evidence to suggest that the these kind of classroom interventions are valuable. Yeah, I was going to push back and say there's actually, I think it is tangible I think it's measurable subjective. There's also subjective assessments where we can ask students how they're feeling measures of happiness but also measures of related constructs like stress and optimism, thriving, meaningfulness, all of these things can be self reported but we can also objectively get at them from the outside and I think there is a lot of evidence to suggest programs of the sort and interventions of the sort to randomize control trials and clearly well designed experiments do support the benefits. I realize they're not always easy to implement I think sometimes there is some tension, as Rory was saying earlier I think especially as we return from the pandemic there's this big urge to get students back up to curriculum pace, thinking that this is in contrast or intention with the pursuit of deeper educational learning, whether it be arithmetic or otherwise. But I think it's in fact not parallel it's not counterproductive I think they're both propelling students in the same direction so there's evidence to support it and I think there's evidence to show it, it can, they kind of encourage each other it's more to some of its parts, actually. Thank you and of course we do know that there are some incredible programs being driven in lots of different parts of the world to try and get this moving. One of one of the most talked about programs is being run by the Delhi government to support the teaching of happiness there and I can see some people in the room who I think are slightly involved in some of the evaluation frameworks for that. And they, they are really acting as a catalyst for these programs to be then be modeled and developed in the right contextual way for other settings. I'm going to switch now to talk to Lisa, because Lisa you bring a different kind of perspective on on this, you're a stakeholder in the education system as a mum and also as a private sector representative because one day you'll be hiring a lot of these kids that are currently in school. And you're now investing a significant energy and kind of funding in the teaching of happiness to children. So could you just help us understand so what's led you to that what was the you know what's the journey that's led you to want to invest in it and to encourage the teaching of happiness to children. So it's a privilege to be sitting on the panel with you guys I said this to you before and I'll say it here again. You really drive initiatives across the board that are phenomenal and I think it is the corporate social responsibility of companies like Unilever and many others to really fund get behind these initiatives and partner with the people that are driving the impact. And so whether I'm speaking on behalf of the global walls brand that has been selling ice cream for over 100 years. We really are in the business of creating special moments. Right. Happiness miles across the board when you're sharing an ice cream with family or friends, but if you want to make impact it has to be sustainable and it has to be ongoing it has to be more than just a moment. And so over the course of and I think this goes back to 2019 when we were one of the co partners to create the world's happiness report and start to really get a seat at the table to talk about the topic at hand that is so critical and get the data that as a corporation and as a brand we think is our responsibility to action. And so we've with that we've evolved into partnering with project everyone and start to create and launch the world the world's happiness project. And so the world's happiness project is about developing a toolkit for educators to be able to bring the social emotional learning into the classroom. And actually, one of the box breathing tools, good for adults and children is part of the deck of cards that is all about, you know, being more aware and more in touch with your emotions and what that's like. And so the, the happiness project is really all about giving the educators, the kids, the types of tools that they need to incorporate into their academic curriculums. And what do you hope to achieve through it. Our biggest objective is to continue to underline how significantly important social emotional learning is in the classrooms. There's a ton of surveys and a ton of data that goes on and on about, you know, adults believing more than 90% of adults believing how important emotional learning is. An unhappy child just can't learn math, you guys know that better than I am. And what's happened over the course of the last couple of years is really been detrimental to children's development right and it goes without saying that this this element of isolation within virtual learning, whether it is my, you know, children under the age of 10 or teenagers that are, you know, going on in their high school journeys. This notion of loneliness has really impacted and slow children down to be able to progress in their academic desires and so our, our intent is to give the tools to drive an element of empathy. Empathy has actually been one of the biggest tools and as you said I am without a doubt, a stakeholder of this but has been an instrumental tool in helping kids understand how the other is feeling. We want to give children the ability to express their feelings to teachers and as a result, kind of developed this relationship that you're talking about where when they see a teacher and they wave and they run because they're their own sense of comfort. And there's an element of self awareness and elements for children to be able to make their own problem solving, you know, kind of type of situations, and most of all, start to understand that mental health is without a doubt a positive thing, just to sort of kind of allude to that being a positive that children take forward and grow up to be happy citizens above all else. Thank you. Anything to add to that. Just going back to what Lisa said, I was thinking, there needs to be empathy for these students who are so strongly impacted by the pandemic and the closure of schools, and just thinking back to my education. It's been a phenomenal year of school and it is mandatory in Ireland to study Irish. And it really reminded me of this one old saying or as we call it a Shanoko. Well on Olga August Chucky she prays the youth, and they will flourish. It is so important to empathize understand and give children the attention to empower them to grow and develop into great human beings. And I have just one message before we finish up. Keep us in the conversation. That's all. Thank you very so of course we are in really quite unusual times at the moment and the impact of school closures on learners of all ages is only really just coming out we're seeing in data. We've seen the shocking statistic that you'll see at the, at the UNICEF installation on new and plaza one in three, only one in three children can read and understand a simple story at the age of 10. And I think that the transparency that we are all feeling across the world to respond to that and to act and and improve that situation makes it easy for teachers to feel the pressure that that is where they need to act. They need to spend more time on literacy, more time on numeracy. How do we help. How should educators balance this pressure that they are under you know I'm a governor of primary school in London and the teachers there say that to me all the time. They want to invest time in other things but the numbers that they are having to respond to our putting a huge amount of pressure on to them. So how can educators balance this pressure to kind of helping learners recover alongside the need to build social and emotional skills. Who wants to go first Rachel. I will no problem. You know, as as Rory just said praise the youth and they will flourish. I mean that is so profound. And it takes me back to what the UN Secretary General mentioned as he called us to action on Friday. I want to remember to create a society of solidarity versus a society of competition. And to me, what that literally means is meeting the students where they are literally emotionally physically geographically and academically. We are literally hanging out outside under a tree gen, literally by the river on the corner, wherever, meeting them in their fashion trends or listening to songs that mean something to them because ultimately, we want to ride on what they are doing. And we want to feel good. So if they're in a space that is making them feel good. Who are we to take them from that space, right. So I mean, we have to remember that in order to drive this sort of transformation we need to sort of juxtapose it against, you know, their most authentic and vulnerable selves. Right. And again, I want to just with your permission reference a journey story so a journey like many other Jamaican children are always smiling if you look at any picture if you Google it right now Jamaican children, you're going to see Jamaican children smiling and pre what I discovered a year ago with a journey. I thought all Jamaican children were happy because we're always smiling, but that is not the case right you know what we see on the surface is not always a reflection of what really is. So we have to ask educators to be mindful of that and not be fooled by what they think is at the surface. I think the next thing I would want to probably say is to encourage educators to, you know, just dig at the don't just scratch the surface just just just dig it. Just go all in and remember to that modeling children learn by modeling. So if we are going to really drive change if we're going to try and balance things. Let us not just just talk the talk but what the walk as well. And Luca, I'd love you to add anything on kind of how to support teachers and doing this you know what kind of training can we give how can we really move it on. I think for example, I think as you said it beautifully, it's this piece around agency. And so, just as you know, education is done to students, sometimes education is done to teachers. And so I feel like we really need to move away from this grammar of schooling as it's described towards this language of learning. And so that means sometimes slowing down maybe even doing some healing. Before we start improving and getting back on it I mean literacy university key literacies, but they are the floor and not the ceiling. And I think we always get stuck in these false dichotomies. It's like are we doing academics now or are we doing well being now well, this is this is a double helix this is completely interrelated. And so you can just start with some simple kernels of practice 60 seconds a little check in you know just weaving this in. This is the fabric of learning learning is a social act, you know and we are all so deeply connected as the pandemic has taught us, you know and so understanding the relationships between ideas building the relationships between each other. I think that's incredibly important and I would say, as an Australian does lots of global work, even in my home country, there is teachers are at breaking point. It's fair to say I think frazzled was the term that somebody use one of the ministers use everybody's frazzled. And so, before we just switch back on to this kind of pace we should pause for long enough to realize, rather than let's go back to what school was. Let's have the conversation about what school can be and then Leslie, who made the point so passionately, then we need to repurpose it, we need to remake it, we need to embody that. And so that's when the ideas become action become reality. And so I guess, you know it's every educated particularly here in this room it's you know keep going. What you do matters every single day. And also, you know it's the reflection on we're all in this together and that we we need to couple back we need to literally remember the learning process, because we are schooling not when we should be creating learning experiences and environments that are social, emotional and cognitive in this beautifully woven way. Thank you Laura. I just wanted to add I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. I, some of my colleagues and I have been studying other ways in which education can be reimagined it was. Earlier today when the Minister from Ghana said, rethinking the transformational learning, rethinking what it can look like, and following over Rachel said to outside of the classroom. My colleagues and I have been really interested in this program run in Saskatchewan for rural part of Canada. It's, this is just one example program but it's called the intergenerational classroom and the sixth grade students spend their entire year completing their full classroom in an elder care facility, and it's incredible watching these relationships build over the course of a year, and they've had to reimagine what the, what what the daily lessons look like. And a lot of it is relationship building and so I think once a week they have what they call coffee club, and the students brew coffee and they serve it to the elders. And not only is that relationship building which spurs off a whole bunch of amazing conversations but the students are learning about the country where the coffee came from they're learning about the production of these things. I think they're really. I mean, this is a huge, a huge shift in a huge challenge for teachers and also big burden and so I don't think we can reimagine and pivot on a dime. Excuse me but I think moving outside of the classroom thinking about the ways in which education is all around us it's not really or merely in worksheets is is is kind of a bold call for what education could look like. And that just sounds so exciting. I mean to all the teachers here wouldn't that be the coolest thing to be able to completely shake it up and have a whole different learning environment with other people of different generations, all supporting one another I mean it's like a dream. It has rallied around this program and it's incredible to see like high school students are sorry high school teachers who meet these folks years later when they're six, seven years older can say, I can pinpoint first day of class, who is in this program and who wasn't because they have this comfort and fluency interacting with other people, the sense of social responsibility that you know comes from outside of the classroom sometimes. So it's really incredible to watch. Yeah. And Lisa, I'm not going to pick on you from a professional point of view now I'm going to pick on you as a as a mom. How do you as a mom, you know when you're aware that there are catch up requirements, literacy, I think your children are exactly that kind of age where literacy and numeracy losses is kind of being measured. How would you respond to your school leadership if you, you know, in this context of kind of social emotional learning versus this investment in catch up. Yeah. So just for perspective, my, I have three of the ages of 57 and nine, who attend a public school in Brooklyn and so all the principles that you guys are talking about here is exactly what I've been seeing this public school take on. What is your point about interaction, like they're all intermingled together. If the concept of a morning meeting where children are going through their agenda. There is always a question of how are you and how are you feeling what that's on a Monday and how was your weekend on a Friday it is a matter of let's reflect on the week so even as children are learning are planning their academic curriculum for the day. It is incorporated into the conversation of let's reflect, which part was great, which part was what was good about the weekend, things of that sorts. The kindergarten teacher in when we first went into virtual learning, the kindergarten teacher would start every single day off with a song from like the 1990s. I mean, I would just sit there in tears next to the five year olds who was going to brace and like believe that it's going to be okay because I've got the song playing for me. And then we'll go on and learn about math theory and how to add and subtract, but the state of mind which this five year old was now doing it with was completely different in a virtual environment and a computer in the screen that he still had to digest what that means and I think that's so important across the board from all of his friends and the whole notion of these new innovations with teaching, you know whether you're innovating products or you're innovating teaching concepts there has to be an element of support and encouragement. And when a teacher is encouraged to innovate new ways of teaching, then you unleash the teachers and when you I've seen that happen, they redefine all of it, all of it and it's incredible. So this is without a doubt a pivotal moment for the industry again just as a parent of what I witnessed because of this post pandemic world that the kids are coming out of. Thank you. And we are running out of time so I'm just going to go quickly along the panel. We had some incredible ministers here earlier, we've met some people today who have been part of the kind of top level discussions about transforming education. I had to leave one message to them based on this conversation. What would that be. Are we starting down here. I think I think supporting well being and happiness is shouldn't be secondary I think it should be a top priority for supporting students. I just strongly demonstrate the importance of this is kind of a safe base for students to learn beyond, you know, to learn the curriculum but learn beyond in what we want in global citizens and forward thinking and supporting the environment and supporting relationships. Thank you, Lisa. I'm sure there's data to back it up but I'll speak more from the heart than anything else. Happier people are smarter people and that can probably be quantified and qualified in many different ways and so it matters. I can send you the papers. Yeah. Mine's a question. What really matters most when we get to the end of something, even our lives perhaps, and it's not how well we did on a standardized examination it's going to be the difference that we made the connections that we had, how able we were to reform our life span. And so, social emotional learning really is such a powerful vehicle, and it is an enormous investment that any system any school, any community any educator any parent can make I think in in the growth of young person to meet the potential. Thank you. And Rachel. And just to just to follow up on that. What are you thinking? Has anyone seen the Amal puppet? Little Amal walking through New York? I had a hug from her. You are lucky you got that hug. Well, you know, I think as I reflect on this question, my mind automatically ran to Little Amal. And what Little Amal has represented I think is very synonymous with what stakeholders are feeling. Children, or teachers, or parents, we're feeling on shore, we're feeling apprehensive, we're feeling worried, you know, it's a plethora of emotions that we are literally facing. And when I look at Amal's mannerisms, you know, she, she does a couple of things, you know, she stops, she looks, and she listens. I think if we were to just take those three words back to our leaders and policy makers and just remind them just stop. Just look and listen. I think they would gain a lot of insight that would strengthen the need for the development of social emotional learning. So, amazing. And Rory, the last word has to go to you. I just want all stakeholders to remember that at all points, when discussing numerical and, and, and literal, numeracy and literacy are very crucially important skills that people must learn the children must learn from a young age. But I argue, and I'm pretty sure we can all collectively argue that mental health must be started, the topic of mental health must be started at the same time as learning how to read and write. Because if we are learning at the age of maybe 14 or 15 and we're only seeing a book definition, which is what I saw. I first saw it when I entered secondary school. And by then it was too late. I just saw teachers reading from the book. What is anxiety, what is mental health that is simply not enough. We need to be familiarised, and we must understand from a young age, what mental health, wellbeing and happiness is. Thank you. I actually don't think I can sum it up better than you did. So, I think we'll close the panel now. Really, really huge thanks for your time, very conscious that we've gone over. There is some lunch in boxes outside if you are hungry, I'm sure you are. Well, it's at the back actually. So please grab it if you want to stay, I think the room is available for about 15 minutes. Please just give a round of applause to the panel. Before you go, just five minutes. If I can take your time before you go just five minutes, we have one more person who is coming here sharing her cause. And, Simran, can I invite you here to share what your causes and we have to end this panel with a call for action so I think it's coming from a young person I think that's the best way to end today's session simple. If you can come here and maybe for five minutes you can share. Good afternoon everyone. I am Simran Seth, a sophomore business student at Boston University. But I'd rather introduce myself through my mission of advocating for a better wellbeing of humans and the planet. Fashion has always been my passion. But lately, it's been sustainability that has my attention. Ever since I was a young girl, I would turn to clothes to boost my self esteem and feel more confident with the outfit I was wearing. However, I don't think our environment feels confident when we make an unsustainable choice. I used to be a frequent purchaser of big and reputable fashion brands at a mall nearby, which spells convenient shopping. You see it, you like it, you buy it. A guilt free indulgence. I always had high hopes from these brands, because they had the financial power to be socially responsible and care for their workers and the environment. But sadly, this isn't the case. When I did an exploratory research essay in my university on what the fashion industry teaches us. I was shocked to read the facts about fast and cheap fashion that came at the expense of the environment and people's livelihoods. These facts completely changed my perspective on fashion and today, I hope they do for you as well. But as I did more research, I realized I needed to make more conscious decisions and look at fashion companies closely before I make a purchase from them. At this point, I would like to thank Columbia University for giving me an opportunity to speak my thoughts in five minutes. But do you know what also happened in the last five minutes. 600,000 pieces of clothing have been thrown out. And why is that? It's because of us. Because we have chosen to buy more and wear less. We have chosen to wear clothes only seven to 10 times. And I too am guilty of this. But we need to fix this. It is incredibly necessary to be more circular with fashion. And one way to make this happen is to create action with at least one of the seven hours. Repair, reduce, reuse, rent, repurpose, recycle, and resale. I hope that has given you some food for thought. But before I go away, I have a question for you. Do you know where all the clothes go if they aren't unsold? Unsold stock in good condition can end up going to landfills or even end up being burned. And this has happened many times by major stores where you've spent a lot of time and money in. But unfortunately, they have prioritized exclusivity and profits over people and the planet. I'm often asked about what one can do individually to tackle this crisis. Well, a step we can take moving forward is evaluating and rethinking our relationship with fashion and shopping and label it less as an activity or as a hobby. For example, spending your Saturday afternoon simply going to the mall and stocking up on your wardrobe without purpose is not cool. And to recognize your purchasing decisions and whether they're purposeful or impulsive. This is what can make companies reform when we use our purchasing power and decisions to support longevity over quick fixes in fashion. We have the power to change the devastating direction the fashion industry is leading us towards today. You can transform your mindset on fashion. In the end, all I'd like to say is for your style to be maintained, this earth must be sustained. Thank you. Thank you all for your time and to Columbia University, especially Radhika, who has given me this platform to highlight an urgent issue in our world. Let's be mindful of our consumption and ways that we generate and that's a good call for action to end the day. Please have this food and then there is, you know, beverage and other things. Please hang around network, meet new people, combine form relationships with happiness as well as ESD and let's make our world better with our actions. Thank you for coming today.