Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Perry G. Christie delivering remarks at the Official Opening Ceremony of the 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (19CCEM). The five-day conference is held at Atlantis, Paradise Island, June 23 -26. Describing the event as a 'critical' one for developing nations, Mr. Christie pointed to some alarming statistics that showed a direct link between a nation's overall education level and its levels of crime, life expectancy, wealth distribution, and citizens’ earning power. (BIS Photo/Peter Ramsay).
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NASSAU, The Bahamas - Throughout the
industrialized world, a high-school graduate earns 10% more than the OECD
average, a vocational college graduate 30% more, and a university graduate 70%
more. Furthermore, throughout the world, the rate of crime falls when the rate
of education rises. In addition, according to the Education for All Global
Monitoring Report “if all students left school with basic reading skills, 171
million people could be lifted out of poverty.”
Extracting these statistics from
The Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) 2014 Education at a Glance Report and other reports,
Prime Minister of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the Right Hon. Perry G.
Christie in his address of the 19th Conference of Commonwealth
Education Ministers (19CCEM) said that the overall level of education in a
country directly impacts its social elements such as crime, earning power and
wealth distribution. Mr. Christie delivered the remarks at the Official Opening
Ceremony held at Atlantis Resort on Tuesday, June 23, 2015.
Said the Prime Minister: “15 years ago, as
signatories to the United Nations Millennium Declaration, each of the nations
represented in this room, and more, agreed to set the world on a path towards
more equitable development and opportunity. Put another way, building a
Stronger, Safer, more Prosperous and Modern international community was
recognized as requiring unprecedented global coordination and co-operation.”
He emphasized that this goal has to be at the
forefront of planning for all nations.
“Today, however, we must affirm that much
remains to be done if we are to keep that promise. We cannot yet claim to have achieved a
Stronger, more equitable approach to development,” said Mr. Christie.
He acknowledged the conference was being held
at a ‘critical’ time as nations struggled with issues such as crime,
unemployment and inequitable wealth distribution. “As we strive to make each of the constituent
nations and territories of the Commonwealth safer, we continue to struggle with
violent crime within our respective borders.
While the world’s murder rate has dropped by 19% in the past eight years,
according to the United Nations, smaller countries such as my own continue to
struggle with violent crime,” he pointed out.
“But that is not the only challenge. As we work in each corner of the globe to
build a more Prosperous Commonwealth, we are constantly reminded that the
disparity between rich and poor continues to be dangerously acute. According to the 2014 Credit Suisse Data
Book, the world’s top 1% now controls 48% of global wealth.”
In addition, Mr. Christie said other
disparities exist in the most basic indicators of human development, such as
life expectancy.
“Given these challenges and the enormity of
them, it is not an overstatement to say that, for this week at least, you are
each of you an integral part of the world’s most important international
gathering,” he said. “All the evidence points to the fact that education holds
the key to overcoming these challenges.”
The five-day conference is being held in the
Caribbean for the first time in 25 years.
It is held every three years in a member Commonwealth country and has as
its main objective the engagement of Education Ministers in discussions that
analyze education systems with a view to executing, monitoring and evaluating
action plans over a three-year period. The conference ends
Friday, July 26.
