Among some 16 cities from around the world, Egypt’s Giza was chosen to win the UNESCO Learning City Award during the UNESCO’s third International Conference on Learning Cities, in Cork, Ireland, held from 18 to 20 September 2017. Egypt’s ambassador to Ireland, Soha Guindy, among other 650 delegates from 92 countries across the world attended the conference. Dr Manal Awad, deputy of Giza governor for environment affairs and community development received the award which was seen as crowning Egypt’s governmental endeavours to improve the educational system in Egypt.
“Cities are key actors for peace and development in the century ahead – our challenge is to ensure that this peace is lasting, that this development is sustainable,” said Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, in her conference message. She added that “lifelong learning stands at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” noting that lifelong learning is more than adult education and technical vocational education, and should be understood as going beyond the walls of classrooms, to include non-formal and informal learning.
According to Ms Guindy, Giza was chosen for the endeavours by the governorate’s officials to find innovative solutions for illiteracy.
The UNESCO Learning City Award is conferred on cities in the network that have made outstanding progress in building learning cities by implementing UNESCO’s Key Features of Learning Cities.
Watani International
24 September 2017