Education is essential to enable us to understand and respect nature. - Peng Liyuan

I believe the education of the future should focus on helping people to improve their abilities in three key areas. First, the ability to live in harmony with nature – humans and nature constitute the community of life. In the face of challenges like climate change and the deterioration of the environment, education is essential to enable us to understand and respect nature, so that production models and lifestyles that are conducive to sustainable development can be fostered.

The eradication of poverty and the realization of gender equality are ideals shared by all mankind, and an aspiration shared by women all over the world. The access to equitable and quality education ensures that women are able to draw the power of self-reliance from knowledge and skills. This will help them to lift themselves out of poverty and to embrace a happy life. In addition, they would be in a position to utilize this power to make contributions to society, and to pass it on to empower future generations – thus stopping the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

We need to explore innovation, use new methods and adopt new technologies to address new problems – so that high-quality educational resources can be offered to more girls, and they can continue their education in flexible and diverse ways.