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EDITORIAL
When I think about the education my 20 month-old
grandson will need to equip him for life in the 21st
century, I think about spiritual and moral education, life-skills,
and how he will learn to survive in a rapidly changing world.
Above all, I think about how he can learn to be a world citizen,
where he will have a sense of belonging to a diverse community
that is working to build a united and just global society.
Such education is based on a firm understanding
of the underlying spiritual nature of every human being, and
how that spiritual nature shapes and informs the needs of
humanity both now and in the future.
There is little doubt that my grandson will
receive more educational opportunities than most of the world’s
children. Lack of education prevents people developing the
spiritual and intellectual capacities with which they are
endowed, and with which they can improve their own lives and
serve their fellow human beings. This injustice strikes the
poorest hardest, and it especially blocks the advancement
of girls and women.
The Bahá’í community in the UK, and worldwide,
is firmly committed to the goal of seeing every child on the
planet, girl and boy alike, provided with access to an education.
Almost half of all Bahá’í social and economic
development activities are schools, located in more than 100
countries. Many are pre-primary schools teaching basic literacy
and numeracy.
Others are academic schools with full primary or secondary
programmes; and yet others provide university-level education.
Whatever the level, these schools are open to all and always
emphasise the equal education and empowerment of girl children.
And well-established Bahá’í schools always include an element
of moral development in their curricula.
By themselves, these schools will not solve
the world’s educational deficit, but they offer models of
inclusive education that empower people to help their communities
meet present and future needs in an interdependent world.
Barnabas Leith
SECRETARY GENERAL,
BAHA’I COMMUNITY OF THE UK
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