The Power Of Education

In 2019 Ann Beatty met with Kailash Satyarthi to discuss children's right to access education, this article was published in Engage issue 19. Kailash Satyarthi – children's rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient sharing his thoughts in a conversation with The Foundation’s CEO, Ann Beatty.

SSF: What do you consider to be the most significant obstacle for children in gaining access to quality education across the world?

KS: Can I just say before we start that I knew Steve Sinnott personally and we worked together on just this; the MDGs and SDGs were our common goal and I much admired his work and passion for believing in the power of education.

The most significant is the lack of adequate political will, globally. Education is at the top of the agenda for us, but not for the governments; at national level and in the national community. That equates, first of all, to inadequate budgetary allocations; not enough global financial support made for the education of children; and, thirdly, whenever the laws that relate to education are not properly enforced because of the absence of accountability. That relates in many ways to not enough infrastructure, there is an inadequate number of teachers. In many countries, teachers are not well trained or well paid, and that is why the motivation factor among the teaching community is low. These issues are, in many forms, a lack of adequate political will.

SSF: How do you think we will overcome these obstacles?

KS: I strongly feel that political will, will only come when you have strong national organisations and mass movements. This is not taking place because of so many other things. The present political trends as we see here in this country, for example, and in many other parts of the world are taking the focus away from education, when education is the key to achieving many other goals in life. These issues are serious and that’s why we don’t see strong social movements for the right to education, good quality public education that brings all of us together on a more equal footing in life.

SSF: Can you tell me a bit about your work in supporting girls accessing education? 

KS: Girls’ education is a big challenge, especially when we talk about the hard-to-reach category of children. These are the children who are living in extreme poverty conditions or those who belong to culturally or socially excluded communities. In these communities, the girls are most vulnerable for all types of exploitation, including denial of education.

We have been working on this for quite some time, not exclusively but inclusively because boys also belong to those sections of society that are trapped in mining, domestic help, small factories as child labourers, trafficking or slavery victims. As a result, we have to work with both boys and girls.

Back in 2001, we had major success in amending India’s constitution, making education a fundamental or constitutional right. This was followed by the Right to Education Law, giving every boy and girl the right to education. For this demand, we organised a long march across the country and in a few months it resulted in not only public support but also political support for a constitutional amendment. In this sense we had some success in bringing more girls into education.

But then social awareness at the village level became one of our key agendas. Yesterday I was in contact with my Foundation in India, they had organised a meeting with youth leaders from about 50-60 villages. These youth leaders are elected leaders as the heads of their village child parliament. This is a part of my Indian organisation, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, that is working across more than 600 villages in making them child--friendly villages. A child-friendly village is when all children are free from exploitation, no child labour and no child marriage. The girls are the most vulnerable victims of child marriage; of course younger girls were married to elder men and this was a common thing that we opposed in these 600 villages. This was the community’s achievement, so not just an NGO type of activity but society participation.

The second thing we are working on is that all children must be enrolled in schools. In most cases, 80% of girls were not in schools, but through this process now both boys and girls are enrolled. We were able to show a concrete example of how community participation, awareness building and bringing in a local celebrity can incentivise the community to bring girls to school.

The most important thing to note is that in yesterday’s meeting with the heads of the villages, more than 2/3 of the leaders were girls. This shows the girls’ power and how not only other girls, but the boys in the village communities support them. Many of the girls were also first-time students, and they were elected because they have more passion, honesty and resilience than the boys. They also come from a background of exploitation and have shown excellent leadership. They were all elected in a democratic procedure. Even the teachers were amazed that the girls were there for the first time and within one or two years they emerged as leaders.

The youth power, or the power of the children themselves, is helping in bringing in more girls to education as well as retaining them. Retaining girls in education has always been a big issue even globally, especially in developing countries at the secondary level. Even in primary school it is difficult to bring them in, and continuing in secondary school is the biggest challenge. We are happy to have been able to achieve this in these 600 plus villages.


SSF: My 13-year-old grandson, Kaylem wanted me to ask you, what made you become an activist?


KS: Very good question, first of all say hello and send my love to your grandson.


I was almost his age when I started something concrete at the age of 11. The first spark about the issues related to children came on the very first day of my schooling when I was entering my local government primary school and I saw a boy my age sitting outside the school gate. We were about 5-6 years old at the time. So I spoke to my teacher because I was disappointed that this boy was not with us in the classroom. My teacher was surprised at the question, told me this was a good question and went on to explain that they are poor children that help their families, and this was a common practice. This was almost 60 years ago now.


I was not convinced by this answer and asked my parents and relatives and they told me the same thing. Every morning and afternoon I saw the boy still working, looking at our feet for shoeshine or repair. At the time, because it was the beginning of school, we were all wearing new shoes so there was no question of our shoes needing repair.


One day I gathered my courage and went straight to the boy, he was working with his father. The boy was very shy when I asked him the same thing I asked my teacher and my relatives, so his father answered, “Sir, I never thought about it because my grandfather, my father, my father and I started this kind of work when we were children and now it’s my son’s turn.” Then he paused and said, “Sir, you guys are born to go to school, but we are born to work.”


This was a shock to me. How come some children are born to work at the cost of their education, their freedom, their health? I could not accept it. That day I had a different perspective of the world. The first lesson I learned was that no matter what my parents or teachers say, it may not be right. They have simply been saying the same thing their parents, grandparents and forefathers have been saying. This was knowledge, experience and traditions and customs that passed on from one to another. Some of these are things that are exploitative and abusive. We should have the courage to question it and see the world with a different eye that does not always accept ready-made answers, but ask questions. This helped to build my personality.


Back to the age of 11, my closest friend suddenly dropped out of school, along with some other boys and girls, at primary level. I knew he came from a poor family, and the reason for them leaving was poverty. My friend disappeared from the town because his elder brother could not earn enough to continue staying in the town, so they went back to their village. That made me very sad and I thought something should be done. So on the day of my school results, me and a friend of mine had a plan. We gathered our pocket money and rented a four-wheel cart that was used for fruits and vegetables. My friend pulled the cart while I chanted, “uncle, aunty, mother, grandmother, friends, congratulations! Today your children passed their classes and have moved on to the next grade.” 


It was a good idea, but a lot of people did not understand what was going on. After a few sentences a crowd gathered, my friend and I chanted, “think of those children who could not afford to continue schooling because they had no books or money. From now onwards, your child’s books will go to waste. Why not put them in this cart so we can give them to these children?” Everyone liked the idea and within four hours, we gathered over 2,000 books. We had to take many trips to store these books. Then I spoke to my teacher and headmaster, meanwhile the town spread the word about what happened that day. Teachers then began saying they wanted to do more. So we had an idea that we should make a book bank, so that the students in need could borrow these books for the school year and then return them. The selection of these children would be done by the headmasters, and it became such a big thing that people started calling me Kailash the Book Bank Boy. This was the beginning of my activism.


SSF: You have often said that you can use anger to very positive effect, and that there are lots of disillusioned views in the world. Recently climate change has become a major political focus resulting in many young people around the world feeling angry and disillusioned because of the inertia shown by their governments in tackling the problem. However, their disillusionment is being used as a positive force to affect change.


If you had to give young people a message today, what would that be?


KS: You have already answered it. Once you are angry, it should not be negative, it should not be driven by revenge or jealousy or ego or selfishness and so on. It should be driven by the inner call for justice and righteousness so that anger can be converted into ideas and actions.


Pessimism and passivity are the biggest enemies in our society. Young people are full of energy and enthusiasm, full of dreams and aspirations for the future. More importantly they have a strong regiment of truthfulness and ideas. That is the biggest capital in the world, I would say.


Almost 3 billion young people in the world are under the age of 25, this is a massive population. This is the reason I have run the campaign ‘100 Million For 100 Million’. 100 million young children are victims of violence, including slavery, trafficking and child labour. Denial of education and health care are also forms of violence. On the other hand, hundreds of millions of youth are willing to take on some challenges for a better world, but they don’t have the purpose in many cases. So, 100 million young people should be the spokesperson and changemakers for the 100 million left out. For young people I would encourage to visit our website 100million.org and be the changemakers. Changemakers just have to demonstrate it, that the changemaker is inside each one of us. The champion, the hero, the leader, is inside each one of us. Especially among young people, so they should acknowledge that leader from within themselves. 




SSF: What effect did winning the Nobel Peace Prize have on your work?


KS: Well, I used to travel in economy class, now the people that invite me tend to bring me in first or business class!


As far as the staying is concerned, I always prefer to stay in the homes of my friends or supporters and so on than staying in hotels. As I am doing right now, staying with a friend in central London. So in this sense there is not much difference.


In terms of work, immediately after the announcement of the Nobel prize, I did not miss the opportunity because the iron was very hot. Everyone was congratulating me including presidents and prime ministers and heads of United Nations agencies and so on. So, I said it is not enough to just praise and congratulate, more importantly we should sit together, and I want to seek something from you. So I began with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, then ex-president Obama, prime ministers from Norway and Sweden, and many more leaders of the world. All with a demand that I had been struggling for some time in campaigning, all the types of child labour, slavery, trafficking, forced labour should be in the development agenda.


So when we had the MDGs I ran the same campaign, people thought it was a good idea, but nobody listened to those arguments. I have been arguing that, A, without education, you cannot achieve any goal and, B, that you cannot achieve education without eradicating child labour because if children are confined to work in places like factories or mines or farms, then you cannot achieve education for all. Then you cannot complete any of these goals.


But in the case of the SDGs, suddenly the Nobel prize was announced, so everybody was thinking ‘yes that’s a good idea, why not?’ Just the small gold medal and the name tag of being a Nobel Laureate helped a lot. I would say that my personal meetings with the world leaders, and those who supported the idea helped it become a reality.


But we have much work to do and without the commitment to and the achievement of SDG 4 by all governments, we will not achieve a sustainable, peaceful and equitable society or achieve the other 16 SDGs. 


Article from Engage 19.

Kailash Satyarthi • December 1, 2021

UNESCO ASPnet Schools Coventry

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Sustainable Development Goal 4

By Matthew Round • June 4, 2025
Defining Success in Education: Bridging Gaps for a Better Future Education is often seen as the gateway to personal and societal advancement through personal betterment. But defining success in education requires a deeper understanding than just academic achievement, it isn’t just about qualifications or certificates. Rather educational success is about ensuring access to learning that is inclusive, equitable and quality-driven. It’s about equipping students with critical thinking skills and the space to be creative. A quality education fosters holistic approaches, promoting emotional, social and intellectual growth. On a societal level, educational success is about ensuring we value and appreciate a society wide distribution of knowledge and skills; that diversity of thought can be just as important as orthodoxy. Ensuring Access to Education that Meets Individual Needs Traditional western forms of education based within on e-size-fits all models are inadequate in a world where learners have diverse backgrounds, abilities and needs. A shift is needed away from the top-down deficit model approaches which assume teaching and learning is transactional or akin to filling empty vessels, or as Paulo Freire described it, the Banking Model of teaching. Success in education will come from programmes that respect differences between individuals and across communities, using, for example, adaptive learning approaches. Additionally, integrating support for learners with neurodivergent needs or disabilities, as well as promoting (and indeed funding) digital literacy, can ensure that education is individual but also focused on the emancipatory effects of education. Gender and Racial Equity: The Pillars of Inclusive Education Gender and racial equity are crucial components of a successful education system and a founding component of Sustainable Development Goal 4. Although there has been significant progress here, disparities globally still persist. Barriers such as gender-based violence, early marriage and inadequate school infrastructure pose challenges for the international community. Similarly, racial inequality in education can manifest in various ways, from lower access to quality schooling to biased curricula that don't reflect diverse cultures or histories. To address these disparities, education systems should continue to develop policies that promote gender-sensitive curricula and address the specific needs of marginalised groups. Investing in female education, particularly in underserved areas such as sexual health, has been shown to create a ripple effect that benefits entire communities. Similarly, anti-racist educational frameworks can help to make sure that all students, regardless of their race or gender, receive the same opportunities to thrive. Creating a Better Future: What Needs to Be Done? Most importantly, we need to keep talking about SDG 4 — providing inclusive and equitable education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. The more SDG4 is part of the global conversation the more likely it will become part of the taken for granted expectations of all countries and communities. The more academics like me discuss it in our lectures and have it in assignments, likely the more we are to normalise high quality, free primary and secondary education with our future global leaders. But more than this SDG4 should be at the heart of grass roots conversations, in every classroom, playground, and café. The more we talk about it the more a part of our global culture equitable access to education will become. Ultimately, success in education will not be defined by what certificates students attain, but by how well we equip individuals and communities to navigate and shape the world. Education should empower individuals, communities and nations to achieve their full potential, breaking down barriers that have traditionally limited access and opportunity. By striving for inclusivity, equity and quality, we can build a future where education truly is for everyone. BIOGRAPHY Dr Matthew Round is an academic and educator, who has worked with children from 3 years old to PhD students. Having been a science teacher, pastoral leader, and senior leader in schools in the UK, he now works in Higher Education and his current research focused on the emancipatory philosophies of Pierre Bourdieu and sex and sexuality education.