Education lights the way through darkness: Tony Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has asked for an open-minded and creative approach to education.

Shaikh Nahyan and Tony Blair at the opening of the 2nd annual Global Education and Skills Forum at Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi, on Saturday. — KT photo By Nezar Balout

Speaking at the opening ceremony of Global Education and Skills Forum, in Abu Dhabi on Saturday evening, he said in the modern world, students must be taught differently.

“The more open-minded you’re towards people, ethnicity, nationalities, the better you’re actually going to be in the world,” Tony Blair told 300-educationists and policy-makers attending the Forum.

He said there had never been a more exciting time for education.

Blair stressed the good news that real lessons were out there about what works and what does not in education, but the bad news was that these lessons were often difficult to apply.

For poorer countries, he said the enrollment numbers are important for measuring educational progress, but the quality of basic education is also important.

Shaikh Nayhan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Youth Culture and Community, who opened the Global Education and Skills Forum called for ‘more thinking on thinking’.

In a multi-faceted speech that set the stage for an evening of debate on crucial issues of teaching and education in a world where 57 million children are currently not in primary school, he said: “It is appropriate that the Global Education and Skills Forum occurs in the UAE, with its history and aspirations so deeply affected by a great appreciation for education,” Shaikh Nahayan said.

Shaikh Zayed compared education to a lantern that lights the way through the darkness. “This forum offers you the grand opportunity to think boldly about how well we tend to the light of that lantern and ensure it burns brightly for the next generation.”

In an emotive evening, 400 carefully choreographed children from GEMS schools across the UAE performed on stage, followed by an impassioned speech on the importance of female education made by Shabana Basij-Rasikh, Co-Founder and President of the School of Leadership in Afghanistan.

Shabana was denied education in her hometown of Kabul under Taleban rule and has since become a passionate campaigner for quality education provision for young women and men in Afghanistan. The forum will discuss the global challenges of a growing young population, a huge education funding gap, the changing nature of skills and work as well as profound technological changes.

haseeb@khaleejtimes.com