President Cyril Ramaphosa says quality, inclusive education is critical to building resilient and sustainable societies.
Co-chairing the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) High-Level Steering Committee on Sustainable Development Goal 4 in Paris, alongside Director-General Khaled El-Enany, Ramaphosa urged leaders to put young people at the centre of education reform.
He says their voices must shape the future of learning and decision-making.
When we convened in 2022, the global education crisis had been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 140 countries committed to recover learning losses, to close equity gaps, to strengthen our teachers, and to ensure that no child would be left behind.…
— Cyril Ramaphosa
(@CyrilRamaphosa) July 10, 2026
“They wanted flexible learning pathways, that we now need to go to the drawing board and ask ourselves whether the way that education has always been delivered is so inflexible as to make them not perform at the highest level. And they also said they want to play a role in the decision-making process, that nothing should be done about them without them,” says President Ramaphosa.
President Ramaphosa has added that experts are doing all they can to ensure that the agenda for quality education is met.
“Their insights will feed into the Global Education Futures Outlook that will be presented at the 2027 Global Education Meeting. Resilience, financing and the post-2030 agenda are streams travelling towards one destination, namely resilient education systems that anticipate disruption, that adapt with equity, and that are ultimately transformative,” he adds. – Reporting by Bonolo Maribe.
“Education builds. It unlocks human potential. It dismantles ignorance.”
Keynote address by His Excellency @CyrilRamaphosa during the Transforming Education Summit (TES +4) at @UNESCO Headquarters
Paris, France#SAinFrance
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— The Presidency
