The United Methodist Church has long recognized the full worth of children and supported quality education for all.
While remarkable progress has been made toward achieving education for all, the right to education remains one of the most widely and systematically violated of all human rights. In 2017, 264 million children and youths are not enrolled in school (2017–18 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report). Girls and persons with disabilities are disproportionately underrepresented in school enrollment. There has been little progress in helping to eradicate adult illiteracy, a condition that plagues 759 million people, two-thirds being women. Millions of children are leaving school without having acquired basic skills.
As we are reminded by the Council of Bishops in their pastoral letter, God's Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action, "We all feel saddened by the state of the world, overwhelmed by the scope of these problems, and anxious about the future, but God calls us and equips us to respond. No matter how bad things are, God's creative work continues."
The benefits of an education are enormous. A good education helps people gain access to better paying jobs, thus, helping reduce the number of people who live in poverty. By the same token, a good education is essential for a sustained economic growth. Education provides people with skills and empowers them to take advantage of new opportunities. Completing just five years of education can increase agricultural efficiency significantly. In addition, studies have shown that educating girls not only raises their future wages, but dramatically reduces infant and maternal mortality rates.
People across the world are demanding that the right to education for all children be upheld. Governments, local communities and community-based organizations in poor countries are striving, often despite the most appalling adversity, to educate their children. Recent achievements to provide primary education could be derailed by global economic conditions, newly falling aid levels, and educational challenges. In 2015, UNESCO, the World Bank, and other U.N. bodies issued a declaration on an Education 2030 Framework for Action. The declaration stressed the importance of inclusion and equity as one of the cornerstones of education for all. Governments must address all forms of exclusion and marginalization, disparities and inequalities in access, participation, and learning outcomes. All people, irrespective of sex, age, race, color, ethnicity, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property or birth, as well as persons with disabilities, migrants, indigenous persons, and children and youths, especially those in vulnerable situations or other status should have access to inclusive, equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities. The Framework calls for the provision of twelve years of free, publicly funded, equitable primary and secondary education, of which nine years are compulsory, leading to relevant learning outcomes.
In 2000 many communities around the world responded to The United Nations' call to "Education for All." In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals. Goal 4 states: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The Global Campaign is a way citizens throughout the world can promote education for all. The mission of the campaign is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right to every girl, boy, and woman and man to a free quality public education.
Rich countries, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, China, and Japan, have repeatedly promised that poor countries with credible national education plans would not be allowed to fail due to a lack of resources. Rich countries and the World Bank must increase and improve aid for education.
Therefore, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church calls on rich nations as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to deliver on the promises to the world's children articulated in SDG 4 by providing substantial and sustained increases in aid for basic education in poor countries through bilateral assistance and the Global Fund for Education. The International Monetary Fund must not press governments to cut education spending as a means to "balance" their budgets, or to stimulate the economy.
In addition, we urge United Methodists in countries around the world to advocate for their governments to provide such support for their children's and adults' education.
ADOPTED 2004
AMENDED AND READOPTED 2012, 2024
RESOLUTION #3162, 2008, 2012, 2016 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION #100, 2004 BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS
See Social Principles, ¶ 163, Basic Rights and Freedoms, B.
From The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church - 2020/2024. Copyright © 2024 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.
¹ Elwell, Walter A. "Entry for 'Education in Bible Times'" Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. http://www.biblestudytools.net/Dictionaries/BakerEvangelicalDictionary/bed.cgi?number=1218. 1997
