28
Nov
2024
Watch
Strengthening children’s rights in the EU - 35th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (debate)
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, 35 years ago the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child enshrined the fundamental right to quality education. However, according to last year’s European Commission report on monitoring education, only two EU countries – Cyprus and Croatia – were not short of teachers. This is a real barrier to access to education and the full development of our children. Fortunately, Portugal is now making progress in solving this problem, significantly reducing the number of students without a teacher this year. But as long as there is a student without a teacher, we cannot lower our arms. And it is also imperative to improve working conditions in teaching and make it more attractive to future generations of teachers. Because education is the greatest social elevator, we will never give up fighting for the rights of our children.