HH Sheikha Moza announces Education Above All's new strategy to help secure universal primary education

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Education Above All (EAA), announced Educate A Child program’s new strategy to help secure universal primary education, during a speech at EAA’s plenary session at WISE 2019.

The session, which gathered global education advocates including HE Graça Machel, SDG Advocate; HE Silviana Lopez Moreira, First Lady of Paraguay; global entertainer and philanthropist Shakira Mebarak Rippoll (Colombia), reflected on lessons learned during EAA’s journey to secure education for 10 million marginalized children.

Despite these milestones, there are still 59 million primary-aged children around the world who are not in school, according to official reports. Indeed, Her Highness noted that in reality the number of out of school children is much larger due to inadequate data monitoring mechanisms for children in geographically isolated areas.

In their strife to find innovate solutions for these barriers, Her Highness announced that “Education Above All is launching a new strategy to be implemented in selected countries, with the aim of ensuring the number of out-of-school children in these countries reaches zero,” said Her Highness. “Through doing this, we can prove that nothing is impossible if we all determine that education truly is above all”

Her Highness also highlighted Zaha Hadid’s prototype classroom in her speech, which was on display at the WISE Majlis, speaking to its innovative design and its contribution to aid the global refugee crisis. The project was designed to provide a safe, multi-functional, and sustainable learning and communal space for refugee children and their families.

“I remember her excitement when I asked her if it was possible for the field of architecture to provide an alternative solution to the tents or temporary wooden buildings typically used for refugee education,” Her Highness said. “My suggestion resonated with her deep desire to contribute and help marginalized children around the world. Sadly, Zaha Hadid passed away before she saw this project become reality.”

Education Above All and Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy have partnered to fund the construction of these structures which will be used during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™️ and then redistributed to EAA projects in Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Myanmar, Palestine, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uganda.

After the session, Her Highness officially unveiled the prototype classroom during her tour of the WISE Majlis.