Grenada, 2025

The Assembly will hear an address by His Excellency Dickin Mitchell, Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Physical Development, Public Utilities, Civil Aviation and Transportation and Minister for National Security, Home Affairs, Public Administration, Information and Disaster Management of Grenada. I request the Protocol Judge call His Excellency and invite him to address the Assembly. Madam President, Members of the Assembly, Excellencies, colleagues and friends. It is my honour to address this Assembly on behalf of Grenada and as a member of the Caribbean Community Charter. Madam President, I extend my heartfelt congratulations on your election as President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. We look forward to working with you on the guiding theme of better together and to supporting your efforts in advancing peace, sustainable development and inclusive reform within the United Nations. We meet today in a time of paradox. The headlines tell us of division, instability and conflict, yet never have human beings had such access to innovation, creativity and opportunity. In one corner of the world, classrooms are reduced to rubble. In another, laboratories create breakthrough in science and technology that can transform our future. A paradox. In one hemisphere, children walk miles to fetch water from school. In another, children are using artificial intelligence in their lessons. A further paradox. The paradox defines our era. Progress and peril, innovation and instability, hope and hardship coexisting side by side. And so Madam President, my remarks today are centred on the one force powerful enough to bind these contradictions together. The only force that can turn innovation into inclusion and conflict into cooperation. That force is education. That is a simple yet profound truth. Education is the single greatest social, economic and creative equaliser that we possess. It transforms circumstances into possibility. It turns the child of a labourer into a leader. The daughter of a seamstress into a scientist. The son of a fisherman into an innovator. This is the heart of my message. Education is not a narrow path to employment. It is a broad road to resilience, to innovation and to peace. And Madam President, it saves people, not just from economic poverty, but from the poverty of diminished possibility. And so education is a lifeline. I have seen this. I have lived this. And now I am privileged to lead this in and for my country. For me, education was a bridge from limitation to possibility. It was education that carried me from a small hillside village in St. David, Grenada, where my family fetched water from a public standpipe to this Assembly Hall today. It was not wealth that brought me here. It was not privilege that brought me here. It was access. Access to teachers who believed in me. Access to opportunities that were modest, but life-changing. Access to the chance to learn, even when the path was uncertain. But my story is not unique. It is echoed in the resilience of the Caribbean families who sacrificed for the children's schooling. In the ingenuity of students who make the most of scarce access and even scarcer resources. And in the determination of communities that rebuild schools year after year after every hurricane. That is the shared story of CARICAM. A story of people who learn to adapt, to innovate, and to persist, always, with education as our anchor. And yet today, we must admit that the definition of education itself is changing. Education can no longer be defined solely by university lecture halls or college campuses. Around the world, young people are shaping their futures in new ways through technical training, vocational education, and digital skills. A certificate in coding can be as powerful as a law degree. A credential in renewable energy can open doors as wide as a medical license. A diploma in advanced manufacturing can transform not only an individual's life or future, but the economic trajectory of an entire community. This broader vision of education is the reality we are embracing in Grenada and across the Caribbean. In Grenada, we have embarked on transformative reforms to strengthen our education system and expand opportunities for all students at all levels. We have established universal secondary education and passed legislation to raise the mandatory school age to 18, ensuring that more of our young people remain engaged in formal education. Not as charity, but as a matter of justice and national survival. We have modernized school curricula to prepare our students for the future. Teaching and technology clubs are now part of the school environment, and all students leaving primary school are assessed through electronic testing, prioritizing both digital literacy and problem-solving schools. We have placed student well-being at the heart of our reforms, hiring counselors, school feeding officers, and attendance officers to strengthen support for student mental health, nutrition, and engagement. We have also expanded our special education department and increased the number of early childhood officers, ensuring greater support for students with diverse learning needs. Because in a small island, every child's potential is a national asset. Additionally, and importantly, we are taking bold steps to make education more affordable and inclusive, eliminating school fees at the pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels. Free tuition is now also available at our two main technical and vocational institutions, widening access to post-secondary training and future skills development. Across the Caribbean community, we are investing in skills for the new economy, such as digital literacy, renewable energy, climate adaptation, and advanced technologies. In the case of advanced technologies, we are considering the teaching, understanding, and use of AI and AI-related skills to enhance education access, delivery, and outcome, as we understand that the jobs of tomorrow cannot be met with the skills of yesterday. And through the Caribbean Future Skills Fund, conceived with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, we are pioneering an endowment model for education, one where international contributions are matched by local investment. This ensures that our young people gain not just training, but also a sense of ownership and responsibility. It is education with skin in the game, from both donors and recipients. This is not education as an abstract ideal, it is education as a lifeline, as resilience, preparing us to withstand the shocks of climate change and economic volatility. It is education as innovation, equipping us through powerful digital tools to turn necessity into opportunity. And it is education as sovereignty, ensuring that our destiny is not dictated by external forces, but shaped by the skills and creativity of our own people. And so when Grenada, Jamaica, or Dominica rebuilds a school after a hurricane, we are not just rebuilding classrooms, we are rebuilding futures. And so we need partnerships. Education thrives when ideas and systems are shared across borders. Partnerships build better schools, yes, but more importantly, they build better citizens of the world. For small states like mine, partnerships bring the reach and the resources we cannot muster alone. They open doors to technologies and opportunities beyond our shores. For larger states, partnership with us offers something equally valuable, lessons in adaptation and creativity, forged on the front lines of hurricanes, pandemics, and economic shocks. Together, these halves create something greater than either could achieve alone. An education system global in vision, but local in impact. And that is why today I call on donor countries, multilateral institutions, and the private sector, not only to fund, but to co-create, not only to give, but to learn. Because education is not charity, it is collaboration, it is investment in the kind of world we wish to leave behind. But yet, there is conflict, instability, and the attack on education. So Madam President, we must also speak honestly of the shadows that darken our world today. Powers rage, economies falter, communities fracture, and amid this turbulence, it is children who bear the heaviest burden. When a school is reduced to rubble, when a teacher is silenced, when a family is forced to flee in fear, education becomes the first casualty of the conflict. When education is taken away, it is not only opportunity that dies, but hope itself. We know all too well what follows, ignorance that breeds division, exploitation that preys on vulnerability, extremism that fills the void, and the cycles of despair that pass from one generation to the next. A child deprived of learning today becomes an adult deprived of dignity tomorrow. And a society deprived of educated citizens becomes a society deprived of peace. And so this is why I say to this Assembly today, protecting education in times of conflict must be treated as a pillar of peace building. Just as we rush to shelter the displaced and heal the wounded, we must also safeguard classrooms and teachers. Just as we protect hospitals, so too we must protect schools. Because whether that child is in Palestine, in Haiti, in Sudan, or in Ukraine, their right to learn is as sacred as the right to life itself. A child in Grenada, a child in Canada, or a child in Qatar deserve the same opportunity to unlock knowledge, to connect with teachers and peers, and to shape their future. An attack on education is an attack on all. A commitment to education is a promise we make for all. Madam President, today I urge this Assembly, regardless of history or grievance, to come to the table in a shared realization that no child's classroom should be treated for a battlefield, and no young mind should be collateral damage of political disputes. From Guyana and Venezuela, to Belize and Guatemala, from Haiti's turmoil, to the wars in Israel and Palestine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we see conflicts that have as another casualty the education of children. All children, not the children of one side or another, but all children. And so I repeat, I urge all parties, regardless of history or grievance, to come to the table in a shared realization that no child's classroom should be treated for a battlefield, and no young mind should be collateral damage of political disputes. And so we must appreciate that dialogue is not weakness. It is in fact the highest form of courage. It is a choice to preserve learning, to preserve hope, and to preserve the possibility of peace. Grenada knows from experience that education thrives when nations stand in solidarity. Around the world, partners have trained our teachers, opened the doors of their universities, and strengthened our health and education systems. From the Republic of Cuba to the Kingdom of Morocco, from the People's Republic of China to the United Mexican States and beyond, such partnerships have given thousands of our students opportunities in medicine, engineering, the sciences, and more, often offered in the spirit of friendship, and even in times of difficulty. It is regrettable that at a time when we should be expanding cooperation, restrictive measures and political divisions continue to weaken international collaboration and punish countries like Cuba that have sought to deliver the promise that education holds. Grenada hopes, for the sake of the Cuban people and for the good of our region, that greater steps will be taken towards Cuba's engagement in the economic and social life of our hemisphere. For small island states, every partnership in education and development is a lifeline. We cannot afford to see those lifelines severed by geopolitics. So Madam President, that is why I join my Caribbean colleagues in reaffirming our region as a zone of peace. This principle is not simply a diplomatic phrase. It is a pledge to our people, because conflict undermines development, and peace is the first investment in people. Other courageous champions of education have reminded us that classrooms must be defended even more fiercely than borders. Her Highness Sheikha Mahmood bin Nasir has echoed the sentiments that in times of war, and I quote, the right to education should be defended just as we defend the right to food and shelter, unquote. The children of Palestine deserve that right to education. They too deserve the right to a future. Gordon Brown, Rasa Machel, Khaleesh Satyard and Malaya Yousafzai have carried the same conviction onto the global stage, that protecting learning is protecting humanity's future. Education cannot wait for the end of conflict. It must be safeguarded in spite of it. Governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector must become partners in this defense. We must work together to rebuild schools and create systems that are resilient enough to withstand war and disasters. Partnership can be the difference between a child picking up a book and a child picking up a gun, between hope and hopelessness. And to my global call to action, the numbers speak for themselves. Each additional year of schooling raises a person's earnings by an average of 10%. If every child in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty. If all girls completed secondary school, child marriage would fall by two-thirds and maternal deaths would drop by almost half. And if every adult worldwide had just two more years of education, global GDP would grow by trillions of dollars annually. These numbers show that education does not just change the fortunes of individuals. It changes the fortunes of nations. It shapes economies, democracies and peace itself. But let me be clear. In this era, technology and education without ethics is not enough. We must also teach our young people how to think critically, act ethically and live responsibly in digital spaces. Education must prepare not only workers for jobs, but also active and responsible citizens. Not only coders of software, but also stewards of truth. Not only innovators of technology, but also guardians of humanity. Because we live in an age where misinformation travels faster than facts. And where algorithms can divide as easily as they can connect. In such a world, education must equip the next generation with the wisdom to discern, the courage to question and the empathy to choose what is right. So let us imagine then a different world. A world where a child at a standpipe in St. David's, Grenada has the same access to knowledge as a child in New York or Tokyo. A world where a child in the rubble of Port-au-Prince can log on to a digital classroom and continue learning despite the chaos around them. A world where a child in a refugee camp, stateless but not hopeless, can study, dream and prepare for a future beyond the fences that confine them. That vision is within our reach, but it will not come by chance. It will come by the choices we make here together, in this assembly and the partnership we embrace moving forward. So in concluding, Madam President, colleagues and friends, education is not only a policy, it is a promise. A promise that no matter the size of a nation, the colour of a passport or the weight of a child's circumstances, that the door to opportunity remains open. For Grenada and the Caribbean community, education is the antidote to ignorance, the pathway to resilience and the seed of innovation. It is how we turn survival into sovereignty. It is how we transform vulnerability into vision. And so I urge this assembly, let us protect our classrooms as fiercely as we protect our borders. Let us value our teachers as highly as we value treaties. And let us treat education not as a privilege for a few, but as a right for all. Because when we safeguard education, we are safeguarding peace. When we democratise knowledge, we democratise hope. And when we give a child, whether in St David, Grenada, or Port-au-Prince, Haiti, or Gaza, Palestine or in a refugee camp anywhere, the tools to learn. We give humanity itself the tools to enjoy. So let us resolve together that no classroom, no student, and no country will be left behind. Let us believe that together, that resilience is not just surviving the storms of our time, but building a world where education ensures we thrive beyond it. Thank you, Madam President.