EVERY year, International Day of Education invites the world to pause and reflect on a deceptively simple question: what kind of education do we need for the future? In 2026, UNESCO’s chosen theme, ‘The power of youth in co-creating education,’ offers a timely and necessary answer. At a moment marked by climate anxiety, democratic backsliding, technological disruption and widening inequalities, the idea that young people should merely adapt to systems designed without them feels increasingly untenable. Instead, this year’s theme recognises a profound shift: young people are not just beneficiaries of education reform; they are indispensable partners in shaping it.
This is more than a rhetorical repositioning. It signals a growing recognition that education systems built for a different century cannot respond adequately to the complex moral, social and technological challenges of today without the insight, creativity and leadership of youth themselves. If education is to remain relevant, inclusive and future-proof, it must be co-created with those who inhabit its present and will inherit its consequences.
From recipients to co-creators
FOR decades, education policy has largely treated young people as passive recipients of knowledge and reform. Curricula have been designed by experts, delivered by teachers, assessed by institutions and evaluated by governments, with students positioned at the end of a long decision-making chain. Consultation, when it occurred, was often symbolic rather than substantive. Youth voices were welcomed in conferences and campaigns, but rarely embedded in the architecture of educational governance.
The 2026 theme challenges this paradigm directly. By framing youth as architects rather than audiences, it acknowledges that learners possess lived experiences and contextual knowledge that are critical to designing meaningful education. Young people understand better than anyone how classrooms feel, how assessments motivate or discourage, how technology shapes learning habits and how education intersects with identity, employment and citizenship. Ignoring this knowledge has been one of the great blind spots of education reform.
Around the world, there are growing examples of what youth co-creation can look like in practice. Student-led curriculum reviews, youth advisory councils within ministries of education, participatory school governance models and peer-led learning initiatives are demonstrating that when young people are treated as partners, educational design becomes more responsive and more equitable. These initiatives also cultivate civic skills, critical thinking and a sense of ownership that traditional top-down models struggle to instil.
Youth agency and democratic education
AT ITS core, co-creating education is a democratic act. It aligns education not only with labour market needs or technological trends, but with broader social goals of participation, justice and peace. UNESCO’s emphasis on youth leadership and participation reflects a deeper understanding that education systems both mirror and shape the societies they serve. Excluding young people from educational decision-making sends a powerful, if unintended, message about whose voices matter.
Meaningful youth participation goes beyond student councils with limited mandates. It involves creating institutional spaces where young people can influence policy priorities, curriculum content, assessment practices and the ethical use of technology. This requires adults to relinquish some control and to embrace intergenerational dialogue as a source of strength rather than disruption.
In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, youth participation in education has an added significance. Young people are often at the forefront of peacebuilding, social cohesion and community resilience. When education systems recognise and support this role, they contribute not only to learning outcomes but to social stability and democratic renewal. Conversely, when youth voices are marginalised, education risks becoming detached from the realities it seeks to address.
Co-creating relevance in a changing world
ONE of the most persistent critiques of education systems is their failure to keep pace with change. Young people are acutely aware of this gap. Many experience a disconnect between what they learn in school and the skills, values and competencies required to navigate contemporary life. Co-creation offers a pathway to restoring relevance.
Youth involvement in curriculum design can help integrate issues that matter deeply to them, such as climate justice, digital citizenship, mental health, gender equality and social inclusion. These are not peripheral topics but central to the kind of societies young people want to build. When education engages with these concerns, learning becomes more meaningful and motivating.
Co-creation also encourages pedagogical innovation. Young people often advocate for experiential, collaborative and creative forms of learning that move beyond rote memorisation and high-stakes examinations. Project-based learning, arts-based approaches, community engagement and peer learning are frequently championed by students because they reflect how knowledge is used and produced in the real world. In this sense, youth participation is not a threat to academic rigour, but a catalyst for deeper learning.
Human-centric education in the age of AI
THE 2026 International Day of Education also foregrounds the role of artificial intelligence and automation, situating them firmly within a human-centric vision of learning. For many young people, AI is not a distant prospect but an everyday reality. They use algorithmic systems to study, communicate, create and organise. Excluding them from conversations about how AI should be integrated into education would be both impractical and ethically questionable.
Youth co-creation is essential to ensuring that technology enhances rather than undermines human creativity, critical thinking and agency. Young people are uniquely positioned to articulate where digital tools support learning and where they risk replacing it with shortcuts, surveillance or inequity. Their perspectives can inform policies on data privacy, algorithmic bias, assessment integrity and digital well-being.
Crucially, a youth-led approach to AI in education resists technological determinism. It challenges the idea that innovation must be adopted simply because it is available. Instead, it asks more fundamental questions about purpose: What kind of learning do we value? What human capacities should education nurture? How can technology serve these goals rather than redefine them? These are ethical questions as much as technical ones and young people deserve a central role in answering them.
Inclusion, equity and whose voices are heard
WHILE the language of youth empowerment is increasingly popular, the reality of participation remains uneven. Not all young people have equal opportunities to influence education systems. Those from marginalised communities, including girls, children with disabilities, refugees, rural youth and those living in poverty, are often the least heard and the most affected by educational exclusion.
The 2026 theme implicitly challenges policymakers to confront this inequality. Co-creation must be inclusive, not selective. It requires deliberate strategies to reach young people who are outside formal schooling or whose voices are systematically silenced. This may involve working with community organisations, using creative and participatory methods and recognising diverse forms of knowledge and expression.
Some organisations have long argued that meaningful youth participation improves not only the legitimacy of policies but their effectiveness. When young people from diverse backgrounds are involved, education systems are better equipped to address barriers to access, retention and learning outcomes. Inclusion, in this sense, is not a moral add-on but a practical necessity.
Youth voices and global education governance
INTERNATIONAL Day of Education is not only a moment of reflection but a platform for global dialogue. UNESCO’s planned forums in Paris and online, alongside reports such as the Global Education Monitoring Report, provide important opportunities to assess how far youth participation has moved from aspiration to practice. Yet global discussions must translate into national and local action if they are to have lasting impact.
Youth representation in international education spaces remains limited, often constrained by funding, language barriers and institutional norms. Strengthening youth participation requires rethinking how global education governance is organised, whose expertise is recognised and how accountability is ensured. Amplifying youth voices should not mean inviting a few exceptional individuals to speak on behalf of many, but creating sustained mechanisms for collective input and influence.
Linking youth participation to Sustainable Development Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education is particularly important. SDG4 cannot be achieved through technical solutions alone. It demands political will, social dialogue and a willingness to share power. Youth co-creation is therefore not only aligned with the goal but essential to its realisation.
Towards a culture of shared responsibility
ULTIMATELY, the power of youth in co-creating education lies not only in what young people contribute, but in what institutions learn by listening. Co-creation fosters a culture of shared responsibility, where education is understood as a collective endeavour rather than a service delivered to passive consumers. It reframes accountability as mutual and learning as relational.
For educators, this shift can be challenging. It requires new skills, new mindsets and, at times, discomfort. But it also offers renewed purpose. Teaching in a co-created system becomes an act of partnership, mentorship and dialogue rather than transmission alone. For policymakers, it demands humility and openness to perspectives that may disrupt established priorities. For young people, it offers recognition, responsibility and the chance to shape futures that are too often decided for them.
As the world marks International Day of Education on January 24, 2026, the theme serves as both a celebration and a call to action. Recognising the power of youth in co-creating education is not enough; that power must be institutionalised, resourced and protected. In a rapidly changing world, education systems that fail to engage youth as partners risk becoming irrelevant at best and unjust at worst.
If education is to prepare young people for the future, it must first take them seriously in the present. Co-creation is not a trend or a slogan. It is a necessary reimagining of how education is conceived, governed and lived. The question is no longer whether young people are ready to help shape education, but whether education systems are ready to be shaped by them.
Musharraf Tansen is a development analyst and former country representative of the Malala Fund.
