global forum reiterates need for collaboration to solve education crisis that countries face ruchi chopda reports from dubai quality education is crucial to ensure young individuals a head start in life said former us president bill clinton at the second global education and skills forum in dubai which saw the launch of a global 1 million prize for the best teacher in his keynote address clinton said individual quality education is profoundly important to give young people a good start for a good life young people with little or no education are twice as likely to come down with hivaids and are far more likely to grow up to earn greater incomes resist conflict and support democracy he said that people needed to maximise opportunities before them and called on education providers to get more partners and investors from the private sector and nongovernmental organisations to solve the education crisis countries face at the opening ceremony former british prime minister tony blair said there has never been a more exciting time to be in education it is the hot topic for governments around the world we are moving into a time when education has become a global public good it is a precondition for a good economy as well as global harmony he called on countries to make education the agenda during summits like the g8 and g20 about 850 participants including world leaders heads of states education ministers business honchos and academic experts were at the event from march 1517 the forum which focused on finding new ways to tackle the education and skills crisis through panel discussions presentations and interactive workshops was organised by unesco the uae ministry of education gems education the varkey gems foundation and dubai cares in support of the united nations secretary generals global education first initiative the topics of the panel discussions varied from policy solutions to draw more girls into stem sciencetechnologyengineeringmaths subjects to leveraging technology to improve education and from mobilising the demographic dividend to providing education in emergency settings irina bokova director general unesco urged governments the private sector and civil society to accelerate efforts to provide quality education for girls the forum concluded with the launch of the global teacher prize applicationsnominations for the 1 million prize for the best teacher can be made till august 31 for further information visit wwwglobalteacherprizeorg