Role: A person reporting on how well your Audience: United Nations Committee

country is doing at meeting the three UN

Global Initiative priorities.

Format: Report Topic: How Australia Stands with the UN’s

Global Initiative Priorities

Australia has done an exceptional job at meeting the three UN Global Initiative Priorities.
The priorities are, putting every child in school, the quality of education they are receiving, and
encouraging global citizenship. In this report, it will be clear that, Australia has met these goals
but they are a leading Nation in encouraging and fostering global citizenship.
As stated, the first priority is getting children in school. Australia, according to the World
Bank, as of 2017 has over 96% of it’s youth enrolled in primary schools. This is a larger
percentage than countries such as the United States, who has 95% of it’s primary age children
enrolled in school. And, 92% of their secondary school age children are enrolled in secondary
education. The same percentage as that of the United States. Australia’s percentage is also higher
than the average across the globe.

Figure 1: Graph depicting the enrollment of primary school children in Australia and United States
Figure 2: World Mapper's map depicting the size of the country proportional to the secondary school-age population that did not
attend secondary education

In the map above, The World Mapper utilizes a unique way to describe the secondary
education population across the globe. Australia is one of the thinner territories, therefore,
depicting that a higher percentage of students are enrolled in secondary education.

The second priority was the quality of education. One factor to look at in this case is
pupil to teacher ratio. Worldwide, the average is 23.446 students per educator, according to the
World Bank. Australia had pupil to teacher ratio of 13.5. Meaning that they had 13.5 students per
teacher. (Australia’s Bureau of Statistics 2016) This is an important measurement of education
because the smaller the classroom is, the more one on one a student can have with their teacher.
In fact, the UN ranked Australia in the top 40 of developed countries. (Singhal 2017)
Figure 3: Graph depicting the change in Teacher to pupil ratio across the globe.

The Third Priority was fostering global citizenship. And Australia has had great success in
establishing this. Australia has opened up to welcoming immigrants from across the world.
(2007) Meaning, immigrant students interweave with Australian students, creating a new and
diverse environment in Australia. In fact, the Australian government is one of the leaders behind
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They plan on working on 17 factors within their
territory, including improving the environment for marine and land animals. One of the other
factors is education. Which, although ranked in the top 40, they only saw a 71% of 15 year old’s
meeting the standards in school. (Singhal 2017)

Sources:
Main Features - Student to Teaching Staff Ratio. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2019, from

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/4221.0Main Features22016.

Pupil-teacher ratio, primary. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2019, from

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRL.TC.ZS?view=chart.

School enrollment, primary (% net) - Australia, United States. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2019,

from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR?locations=AU-US&view=chart.

Singhal, P. (2017, June 16). UN agency ranks Australia 39 out of 41 countries for quality education.

Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.smh.com.au/education/un-agency-ranks-

australia-39-out-of-41-countries-for-quality-education-20170615-gwrt9u.html.

Some Secondary Education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2019, from

https://worldmapper.org/maps/education-somesecondary-2015/.

Sustainable Development Goals. (2018, August 7). Retrieved November 13, 2019, from

https://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/development-issues/2030-agenda/Pages/sustainable-development-

goals.aspx.

Who is my neighbour? Australia's role as a global citizen: Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of

Australia. (2007, September 30). Retrieved November 13, 2019, from

https://institute.mercy.org.au/who-is-my-neighbour-australia-s-role-as-a-global-citizen/.