UNESCO: Student Councils take part in the High-Level Committee’s proceedings for the first time

Today in Paris, the Minister for Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, took part in the Transforming Education Summit +4 and the High-Level Steering Committee on SDG4, organised by UNESCO to set out the priorities for the international education agenda beyond 2030.

During the meeting of the High-Level Steering Committee, the Minister spoke during the debate on priorities for strengthening the resilience of education systems, reaffirming Italia’s commitment to a school system capable of combining quality, innovation and the recognition of merit, including in the context of international cooperation.

The mission also represented an important recognition of the Italian model of student participation. For the first time, in fact, representatives of the provincial student councils took part in the work of UNESCO’s High-Level Steering Committee as observers. They were the only national student representatives admitted to the proceedings of the High-Level Steering Committee, as part of the Global Consultation on the Post-2030 Agenda for Education and Learning promoted by the SDG 4 Youth & Student Network. This achievement demonstrates UNESCO’s appreciation for the Italian model of student councils, which has been cited as a benchmark for the structured involvement of young people in decision-making processes relating to education.

Minister Valditara concluded his speech as follows: “I would like to highlight the message coming from young people. It is clear and strong. Young people expect and deserve high-quality education policies. And they also want to play a part in shaping them. I put forward this proposal last October, during the G20 Ministerial Meeting in South Africa. I reiterate it here. We must listen to young people, because they are our present and our future. In Italia, the participation of student councils in the political decision-making process has become a reality. For the first time, the provincial student councils have contributed to the drafting of the National Guidelines for the Upper Secondary School Curriculum. Students have also been invited to play an active role in international initiatives organised by Italia. They took part in the G7 Youth Summit in Trieste and in the first International Forum on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the Mediterranean Region, held in Cairo a month ago. They took part in the Next Gen AI Summit on Artificial Intelligence in Naples in 2025. And our student representatives are here with us today. I call on the representatives of UNESCO and other international authorities to involve student representatives in future international meetings.”