Brexit and its potential impact on youth and education was firmly on the agenda at the seventh annual Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF 2019), a Varkey Foundation initiative, taking place at The Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai.
With less than a week to go before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, a panel including Baron Jitesh Ghadia, the Conservative peer, Professor Becky Francis, Director of UCL’s Institute for Education, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, discussed how Brexit could influence the education sector and young people’s futures. The session was moderated by Nick Ferrari of LBC.
Baron Ghadia said:
“Brexit is perhaps one the greatest crises faced by modern Britain, the outcome of which will affect everyone – including our youth. Whilst I would not recommend a second referendum, which could be twice as toxic, I do think we need to be better at finding ways to bring things together and that includes continuing to invest in our young people and their education.”
Matteo Renzi said:
“If indeed Brexit goes ahead, it will be a disaster for the UK economy for the next five years, but also for Europe. Immigration is a huge challenge, but Europe is sinking in the red tape of bureaucracy and this is holding things back in terms of finding a solution that is good for our future generations. Across Europe, Britain included, we need to see a continued investment in education and culture.”
Professor Becky Francis added:
“Should Brexit go ahead there is no doubt that young people will be disadvantaged. What’s sad to see is that whilst the opinion polls show that young people are vastly in favour of remaining, they are being excluded from the debates. I think the lack of people voting was indicative of a level of complacency that we need to try to reverse through continued investment in quality education for all segments of society, not just the privileged.”
George Papandreou, added:
“Now that we are two years into the chaos that has followed the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, maybe it is time for a second referendum to enable more collaboration across Europe to deal with global rather than local problems, as well as ensure we effectively engage young people as part of that decision-making process.”
GESF 2019 this year was attended by five former Presidents and Prime Ministers and 40 Education Ministers. World leaders were joined by a new generation of change-makers, including grassroots activists, philanthropists, tech developers and many more, that are shaping the world with new voices, new ideas and new technologies.