Creative Brief
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela.
Let’s start with the facts.
Every child in the world is guaranteed a primary education (at least) under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The second Millennium Development Goal, a declaration adopted by all UN member states, is to "ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling."
Yet 121 million children (at a conservative estimate) do not attend primary school. That’s a figure that equates to almost 2% of the world’s population, or more people than live in Mexico. Either way you look at it, it’s a huge amount. A child can be denied an education because they have to work to support their family. A child can be denied an education because they’re disabled. Or they believe in the ‘wrong’ religion. Or they’re the ‘wrong’ sex. Or are from the ‘wrong’ country. Whatever. Every child has the same right to an education. A full and proper education. Yes, this is a pressing problem in developing countries. But it’s an issue that affects us all. Illiteracy and innumeracy are problems that are on the rise (or never went away) in the West. In France illiteracy has become a "cause nationale" (with 3.1 million people unable to read, write or count), the rate of illiteracy in the U.K. is "unacceptably" high, while according to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 42 million adult Americans can't read and current estimates have the number of functionally illiterate adults in the U.S. increasing by approximately 2,500,000 persons each year.
And it’s a problem that without intervention will just keep on getting worse. This isn’t simply a question of getting kids in school, it’s about giving everybody on this planet, regardless of gender, religion or handicap, a chance of a better life, a better tomorrow for themselves and their children. An education gives people the chance to break the cycle of poverty; it can stop discrimination; it gives hope. Take away a child’s education, and you take away that chance. Education is the building block on which society grows and flourishes. It’s not a question of deserving an education, it’s a right. It’s your right, our right, everyone’s right.
And until we have universal education, our world will simply be wrong.
Proposition
We want to make everyone aware of this right and that every child has this right to an education; of what must change; of the fact that the West is withholding the aid it has promised to developing countries to set up more school; ultimately of what an education offers. A better tomorrow, for the whole world and everyone in it.
International jury
- Michael Batory (France)
- Joanna Gorska (Poland)
- Yuri Gulitov (Russia)
- Giancarlo Iliprandi (Italy)
- Ruth Klotzel (Brasil)
- Alain Le Quernec (France)
- Erik Spiekermann (The Netherlands)
- Sophie Thomas (United Kingdom)
- Niklaus Troxler (Switzerland)
Dates
10 March, 2011: call for entries opens.
10 July, 2011: call for entries closes
More information, a FAQ and regulations on www.posterfortomorrow.org.
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