Second Committee Debate 
of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly 
On Agenda Item 20 (h), dedicated to
"Education for Sustainable Development"
New York, October 11, 2021

Madam Chair,

In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community committed itself to providing “inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels” and to ensuring that every man, woman, and child “acquire the knowledge and skills needed to exploit opportunities and to participate fully in society.”[1]

We have made significant progress toward universal access to quality education, yet this commitment has still not been achieved. Poverty, inequality, discrimination, and the exploitation of human beings continue to prevent the flourishing of millions. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education for more than a billion children across the globe.[2] In light of this, both recovery plans and action towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda must give special attention to education as a fundamental enabler of sustainable development. They also must respond to the many challenges that educational institutions face at this time. 

First, measures to guarantee universal access to quality education must be grounded in the recognition that education is a right that everyone, including the poor, must be able to enjoy. The right to education includes ensuring that all people have access to the formation that will enable them to pursue their ultimate end as well as the good of the societies of which they are members and in whose obligations, as adults, they will share[3].

Second, there is urgent need for a renewed commitment to an educational model that sees education as more than the transmission and accumulation of knowledge. This requires overcoming any approach that reduces education to a commodity and learners to clients or consumers. The human person and his or her inherent dignity must be at the center of educational programs. Indeed, the intrinsic purpose of education is to allow each person to realize his or her full potential, assimilate fundamental values and virtues, and, on those foundations, shape his or her own future[4].

Third, the primary role of the family as “the first and essential place”[5] where such formation happens must also be promoted and respected. Parents, in particular, are the first educators and have the right and responsibility to ensure that their children receive an adequate and holistic education that promotes their wellbeing in all dimensions — physical, mental, moral, spiritual and social — of human life.[6] The role of parents is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore “incapable of being entirely delegated … or usurped by others.”[7] For these reasons, States and public authorities have the duty to guarantee this right and to ensure the concrete conditions necessary for it to be exercised.

Fourth, educational programs and practices must promote a “culture of care”[8] for the protection of our common home and foster human fraternity.[9] A crucial aspect of education for sustainable development is educating young generations about sustainable production and consumption habits, generating new models of economic growth that put the environment and the human person at the center, and protecting our planet from the exploitation of its resources. Strengthening the links between education and climate action, through the adoption of an integral ecology that combines caring for people and caring for the natural environment[10], is a vital step towards the “ecological conversion”[11] called for by Pope Francis. 

Lastly, education, through dialogue, integration, and social friendship, can make a fundamental contribution to overcoming exclusion, and to renewing “the fabric of relationships for the sake of a humanity capable of speaking the language of fraternity.”[12] The Global Compact on Education, recently launched by Pope Francis, is a concrete sign of the Holy See’s commitment to promote a form of education that seeks to integrate all aspects of the human person, to generate peace, justice and fraternity within the human family, and to look to the future with hope.[13]

The Holy See, especially through the tireless work of the many Catholic schools, universities, and educational institutions around the world, will continue to play its role in ensuring “that everyone has access to a quality education consonant with the dignity of the human person and our common vocation to fraternity.”[14]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[1]A/RES/70/1.

[2]Cf. A/76/229, Report of the Secretary-General on “Education for sustainable development in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. 

[3]Cf. Second Vatican Council, Gravissimum Educationis, 1. 

[4]Cf. Compendium of the Catholic Social Teaching, 238-239.

[5]Pope Francis, Video Message on the occasion of the meeting organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education: “Global Compact on Education. Together to look beyond,”15 October 2020. 

[6]Cf. Compendium of the Catholic Social Teaching, 239.

[7]Ibidem.

[8]Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, 231.

[9]Cf. Pope Francis, Video Message on the occasion of the meeting organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education: “Global Compact on Education. Together to look beyond,”15 October 2020.

[10]Cf. Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, 141.

[11]Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, 5. 

[12]Pope Francis, Video Message on the occasion of the meeting organized by the Congregation for Catholic Education: “Global Compact on Education. Together to look beyond,”15 October 2020.

[13]Pope Francis, Message for the Launch of the Global Compact on Education, 12 September 2019.

[14]Ibidem.