On the United Nations calendar, January 24 is International Education Day.
The United Nations General Assembly declared January 24 as International Education Day, recognizing its merits for achieving peace and development and recognizing it as a human right, a public good, and a public responsibility.
The right to education is enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration calls for free and compulsory primary education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) goes further by stipulating that countries must make higher education accessible to all.
According to the UN, Education is the key to sustainable development.
Education offers children a ladder out of poverty and a path to a promising future. But an estimated 244 million children and adolescents worldwide are out of school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school; and an estimated four million refugee children and youth are out of school.
The UN says that quality education is the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty that is leaving behind millions of children, youth, and adults.