UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Education is an essential pillar for achieving all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, UN secretary-general's chef de cabinet, said on Monday.
"Education is an essential pillar for achieving all the SDGs," said Viotti at the annual Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) hearing at UN headquarters in New York.
Viotti told the IPU that millions of young people leave school without "the advanced skills that match today's labor market," which she said, "are vital for navigating the digital world in the fourth industrial revolution."
Viotti noted that this is approaching fast: "Automation will displace tens of millions of jobs by 2030."
Urging everyone to "steer technology for positive change," she underscored the importance of learning how to learn "across a lifetime."
"We need to redesign education systems and rethink the concept of work," she said.
"Innovation and investment in quality education will, in turn, support us in tackling the greatest challenges of our time, including climate change, rising hatred against minorities, migrations and others, fracturing societies in protracted conflict."
The IPU is a global inter-parliamentary institution established in 1889. It was the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations. Initially, the organization was for individual parliamentarians, but has since transformed into an international organization of the parliaments of sovereign states. The IPU has permanent observer status at the UN General Assembly.
