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UN/ OBAMA GLOBAL EDUCATION
STORY: UN / OBAMA GLOBAL EDUCATION
TRT: 4.19
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV/UNICEF/UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations headquarters
2. Wide shot, meeting room
3. Med shot, Obama stepping up to podium
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Michele Obama, First Lady, United States:
“When it comes to education adolescent girls, the real challenge isn’t just about resources it’s about attitudes and believes. It’s about fathers and mothers thinking that their daughters are as worthy of an education as their sons. It’s about weather community values young girls for their minds or only for the reproductive and labour capacities of their bodies.”
5. Med shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Michele Obama, First Lady, United States:
“Who among us would accept our daughters and granddaughters getting only a primary education? Who among us would accept our precious girls being married off to grown men at the age of twelve? Becoming pregnant at 13? Being unable to support themselves financially? Confined to a life of dependence, fear and abuse? None of us in this room would ever dream of accepting that kind of life for our daughters and granddaughters. So why would we accept this for any girl in any country or any girl on this planet?
7. Wide shot, meeting room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Michele Obama, First Lady, United States:
“I am thinking about girls like Malala. I am thinking about those brave girls in Nigeria. I am thinking about all those girls who will never make headlines. Who walk hours to school each day. Who study late into the night because they are so hungry to fill every last bit of their god-given potential. If we can show just a tiny fraction of their courage and their commitment then I know we can give all of our girls an education worthy of their promise.”
9. Pan right, meeting room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO:
“The global learning crisis as we call it, violates basic human rights, it undermines social cohesion, and threatens stability, throwing a shadow over development of entire societies, condemning generations to despair.”
11. Med shot, audience
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Gordan Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education:
“Let us first of all send a message of support to 250 Nigerian girls who are in captivity simple because they wanted an education, who stay in captivity simply because they didn’t given up their right to education, they deserve and they should have our support. (applause) This week in Nigeria, I am talking to the Bring back our girls’ campaign.” So desolate and so in despair, are the parents of these girls that they are telling me that they wish to organise funerals for these girls. And we must give these parents hope.”
13. Med shot, audience
FILE - UNICEF - 14 NOVEMBER 2013, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
14. Various shots, classroom
FILE - UNMISS - 13 JANUARY 2014, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
15. Various shots, young people taking exam in classroom
FILE - UNICEF - 25 OCTOBER 2013, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
16. Wide shot, girls entering the school building
17. Various shots, girl's class
Despite global gains in the number of children enrolled in school, many of the world’s students fail to leave their educational experiences with the skills necessary for them to succeed in life and help their nations develop, United Nations officials said today.
More than 250 million of the 650 million primary school-aged children in the world cannot read, write or do basic mathematics, whether they have been to school or not.
Though the number of children enrolled in school has increased in the last two decades, many do not leave with the skills they need to succeed in life. Many advocates consider this a `global learning crisis’.
In delivering the keynote address, First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, declared that “when it comes to education adolescent girls, the real challenge isn't just about resources it’s about attitudes and believes” adding that fathers and mothers need to think that their daughters “are as worthy of an education as their sons.”
The First Lady said that if “we can show just a tiny fraction of courage and commitment” like Malala and girls in Nigeria, as well as all those girls around the world “who walk hours to school each day and who study late into the night because they are so hungry to fill every last bit of their god-given potential” then all the girls would have an educations they deserve.
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO said that “the global learning crisis as we call it, violates basic human rights, it undermines social cohesion, and threatens stability, throwing a shadow over development of entire societies, condemning generations to despair.”
Gordan Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education invited participants to send a message of support to “250 Nigerian girls who are in captivity simple because they wanted an education, who stay in captivity simply because they didn’t given up their right to education.”
Brown recounted his recent trip to Nigeria where he met parents of kidnapped girls who “are so desperate that they that they wish to organise funerals for these girls”.
“We need to give these parents hope” – said Brown.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon founded the Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) in 2012 to accelerate progress towards achieving universal access to basic education, improve the quality of learning and to foster global citizenship.
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