Moodle is committed to open education as we know that everyone should have access to the highest quality education experiences and latest technologies, and realise the true potential it carries in transforming our world. We diligently uphold our mission statement, to “empower educators to improve our world”. We believe every learner and educator should be equipped with quality educational tools and resources. This commitment has helped us gain recognition as a B Corporation Certification, which is awarded after a rigorous process to organisations which use business as a “force for good”. In our work, we always consider the best interests of the people we serve: teachers, trainers, and learners.
Providing access to education technology helps make learning equitable and accessible and is at the core of what we do. This commitment led us to develop solutions including our open source eLearning platform Moodle LMS and our global network for teachers to share and curate open educational resources, MoodleNet. We have also created Moodle Academy, our free learning hub where educators, administrators, designers, and developers can develop skills in online education with Moodle.
We believe education is more important than ever, especially in the challenging global economic environment we live in. In line with our mission, we’re proud to support UNESCO’s World Education Day held on 24th January this year.
International Day of Education 2023
UNESCO celebrates International Day of Education on 24th January, and the 2023 celebrations mark the fifth anniversary of the event. This year, the focus of the initiative is on investing in education even when the world is entering a financially tough time and recognising its impact on helping our planet.
Following the Transforming Education Summit (TES) in September 2022, this year’s International Day of Education will involve a call to rally countries to politically mobilise for the cause of education under the theme:
“To invest in people, prioritise education”
Emphasis is also placed on driving global initiatives into action and the realisation of commitments.
The call for inclusive and equitable education, which is part of UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), is essential in the backdrop of a global recession and climate crisis. These SDGs are an important aspiration of UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Improving green education
Green education is among the key goals of the International Day of Education 2023. UNESCO reviewed the curriculum of 100 countries to find that half of them didn’t have any mention of climate change. This understanding and the realisation of the gap led to the launch of the Greening Education Partnership at the Transforming Education Summit 2022. The initiative was created in alignment with UNESCO’s efforts to promote Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by partnering with sister organisations such as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The same aim is carried forward to this year’s event and encourages countries to work on improving green school accreditation, updating curriculum to include climate education, training teachers in the field, and reaching out to adult learners.
Apart from green education, this year’s event will cover the challenge of under-investment in education. The statistics are concerning: by age 10, six out of ten children are unable to read and understand a simple story; the children and the young people out of school are currently 244 million; the number of young people in employment reduced by 34 million in 2020, and this happened at a higher rate than that of the adults. Hence, increasing the reach and quality of education is of utmost importance to provide inclusive and equitable education.
Call to action for the community
Many goals are set for International Education Day this year, and some of them follow the 2022 Transforming Education Summit considering the outcomes from the 2023 SDG Summit. These are also complementary to the six calls to action, which cover crucial areas like foundational learning, green transition, digital transition, and financing.
Read more about the event and see how you can support it on UNESCO’s International Day of Education event page.