World Parliament Day 2025: Online event to profile parliamentary action on education

Four MPs from Africa, Asia and North America shared their parliamentary work for education to celebrate World Parliament Day 2025.

• On Monday 30 June, World Parliament Day, an online event was held to profile parliamentarians worldwide taking action on education.

• Four MPs showcased their work on banning corporal punishment in Thailand, improving legislation on domestic financing for education in Nigeria, promoting disability-inclusive education in Canada, and improving access to education in rural South Sudan.

• Parliamentary action is key to increasing and sustaining progress on education and ensuring that every child is in school and learning.

World Parliament Day is celebrated every year on 30 June, the date that the Inter-Parliamentary Union was founded in 1889. This year, IPNEd marked the Day by hosting an online event to profile the actions of members of parliament worldwide on education. 

The role of parliaments is crucial to improve and strengthen education systems, ensuring that every child has access to their right to quality education.

The online event showcased the actions of four members of parliament from Thailand, Nigeria, Canada and South Sudan, and was chaired by Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, Co-Founder and Executive Director of IPNEd.

Banning corporal punishment of children in Thailand

First to share her work was Hon. Patsarin Ramwong, Member of the National Assembly of Thailand, who spoke about legislating to prohibit the corporal punishment of children in Thailand. Making sure children can access safe, violence-free schools is a vital step to improving the quality of education and ensuring children can learn. 

“This is the first time that the bill proposed by the opposition party has been signed into law, and I'm proud to be a part of this. The [corporal punishment] amendment was passed by the House of Representatives on October 13th 2024, and by the Senate on the December 16th 2024, and received Royal Ascent on March in this year,” shared Ms. Ramwong. 

Ms. Ramwong emphasised the importance of child protection and safeguarding mechanisms, stating that she was personally invested in ensuring that all children grow up in a violence-free environment across Thailand. 

Increasing and improving financing for education in Nigeria

The second speaker was Hon. Mark Useni, Member of the National Assembly of Nigeria, who spoke on legislating to increase financing for basic education. Mr. Useni is Chair of the Basic and Higher Education Committee in the House of Representatives, and is working cross-party and with the House of the Senate to amend the Basic Education Act.

Mr. Useni said that education in Nigeria is a bipartisan issue, because “The problem is a Nigerian problem, and all of us must work together to ensure that we address it regardless of our political differences. There is no party consideration in this case, it is about the Nigerian children. It is about the future of our country.”

Mr. Nhan-O'Reilly highlighted the unique role of parliamentarians in drafting, amending and proposing legislation, as done so by Ms. Ramwong and Mr. Useni. 

Improving Canada’s support for inclusive education 

Next, Hon. Mike Lake, a Member of the House of Commons in Canada, shared his work to promote disability-inclusive education globally. 

In 2023, Mr. Lake put forward a motion in parliament to encourage the Canadian government to take action on disability-inclusive education worldwide. The motion was passed unanimously in the House of Commons. 

Mr. Lake emphasised that the motion especially made a “clear consideration…to the maximum inclusion of people with disabilities. Too often even when governments take action on disability and inclusion, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are still excluded.”

Improving access to education in South Sudan

The final speaker was Hon. Samuel B. Lotti, Member of the National Legislature of South Sudan. Mr Nhan-O’Reilly set the scene for Mr Lotti’s intervention, sharing evidence that 70% of the school-age population as out of school in South Sudan.

Mr. Lotti has been working to reverse these statistics in his rural constituency in South Sudan, by building more schools and hiring and training teachers. Some families in his constituency have never been to school, and he enabled more than 170 children start school for the first time. 

“The children are very enthusiastic to enter into classrooms. Sometimes, the children even go with their mothers, who have never seen education in their life. I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of children that are reporting to school, some even walking almost 5 kilometres through bushes and not being fearful, as some are because of child abduction,” said Mr. Lotti. 

Mr. Lotti was joined by his colleague, Hon. John Gai Yoh MP and Former Minister of Education in South Sudan. He shared the importance and urgency of improving access to education, particularly in light of severe disruptions in education provision due to conflict. 

“We had only one serious problem. All the schools were closed for almost 10 years, there was no examination whatsoever as the majority of people left,” shared Mr. Gai Yoh. 

Parliamentarians sustaining and pushing education for all

The experiences of these parliamentarians provide a window into some of the issues worldwide on education, and the vital work that they are doing to ensure education can be provided. 

Mr. Nhan-O’Reilly opened the floor for other members of parliament and other audience members to intervene, share experiences, and ask questions.

One area of focus was the importance of engagement between civil society and parliamentarians. Giulia McPherson, Executive Director of the Global Campaign for Education in the USA, stated that education is, in her context, a bipartisan issue and relying on members of parliament to champion specific topics in education can help to push forward initiatives by civil society.

Parliamentarians are critical to pushing for and sustaining progress on education. Their work championing specific causes exemplifies what political leadership for education looks like and paves the way to close the gap in education and ensure quality education for all.