The event sponsored by "Salesian Missions," with the collaboration of Fr Thomas Pallithanam, Salesian representative to ECOSOC, aims to address the pressing need for integral education, with a focus on Goal No. 7 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 4: "By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.”
Although considerable progress has been made in this field, the various goals set have still not been achieved. And although education has always been seen as a factor in development, inequality in the world continues to grow.
The goals in 4.7 can make education truly transformative.
And as the international community prepares for the Transformative Education Summit in September 2022, the challenge to be met is to make education a true engine of development.
In his introductory speech, Fr García Morcuende first recalls the figure of Don Bosco, "a person really committed to education, a great builder of educational works for the new generations, to whom he transmitted many values through school, culture, professional training: his boys were trained to be upright and competent workers, social actors with a great civic sense, an active citizenship. A modern message for the times then and now."
On the founder's model, the General Councilor for Youth Ministry derives the Salesian conception of “the educator, in our institution, the Salesian Congregation, full of concerns for the daily needs of young people, is aware of his transformative impact in the educational, social and even political fields.”
And he also recalls that for the Salesians, present in 134 countries around the world, with more than 3,000 schools, more than 700 Vocational Training Centers and 90 Higher Education Centers, and more than 1,000 centers dedicated to the neediest youth population, "it is necessary to fine-tune an intellectual and emotional intuition of the world of youth, especially of the most 'abandoned' ones: education, if it is not holistic, is no longer effective."
Developing his thought, Fr García Morcuende further argues that "society must make it possible for all people to receive an integral education based on dialogue, on the responsible use of freedom, on the discovery and development of the skills we have, on autonomy as a capacity for self-regulation of each one of us, on empathy toward other people, and in short, its interest is to turn us into citizens with balanced feelings and with the possibility of developing our competencies."
It is, in a nutshell, about cultivating "the values of the Sustainable Development Goals, without which education cannot be transformative."
For this, the General Counsel also recalls Pope Francis' calls for a Global Compact on Education, as well as the forthcoming Transformational Education Summit in September 2022 convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, both of which are driven by the realization that “The more the young are educated to values the better they can work for making this world a better place, where peace and justice reigns and where No One Is Left Behind.”
The event is moderated by Barbara Terenzi, Head of the Human Rights and Advocacy Office of the Salesian NGO "VIS - International Volunteering for Development," and also features speeches by other personalities and representatives of international agencies, NGOs, and entities committed to Human Rights.
