There is a persistent narrative that frames young people as “leaders of tomorrow,” subtly suggesting that their influence belongs somewhere in the future. While this framing is often made with good intentions, this framing fails to recognize a powerful reality: young people are already shaping education systems and social change today. The International Day of Education 2026, themed “The Power of Youth in Co-Creating Education,” calls on us to confront this truth and rethink how education systems engage young people, not as passive recipients, but as active partners.
Across classrooms, communities, and digital spaces, youth are not waiting for permission to lead. They are already practicing leadership, responding to gaps in education, and designing solutions rooted in lived experience. Youth leadership in education is not a future aspiration; it is a present-day force with tangible impact
Youth Are Already Leading Change in Education
Around the world, young people are stepping up where education systems fall short. They are organizing peer-learning initiatives, advocating for inclusive education policies, mentoring younger students, and building community-based solutions that respond directly to local needs. These efforts often emerge not from institutional mandates, but from lived realities and a deep understanding of the barriers young people face.
In Ghana, my own journey as a young education advocate reflects this reality. Through Araba Foundation International, I work alongside communities to empower rural children and young people to access quality education. The Foundation supports children through school donations, mentorship programs, scholarships, menstrual health education, and school renovations, addressing barriers that often keep rural children, especially girls, out of school.
Our work recognizes that education is not only about enrollment, but about dignity, confidence, and opportunity. By ensuring girls have access to menstrual health education and supplies, supporting schools with learning materials and infrastructure, and investing in long-term educational pathways, we are responding to gaps that young people experience firsthand. This work is youth-led, community-rooted, and impact-driven, and it is only one example among many.
Across Ghana and beyond, young innovators are reimagining what education solutions can look like. One powerful example is a young Ghanaian innovator who transforms plastic waste, including discarded pure water sachets, into durable school desks for public schools. This innovation addresses the shortage of desks in classrooms while simultaneously responding to environmental challenges linked to plastic waste. By repurposing waste into learning infrastructure, this initiative demonstrates how youth leadership can connect education, sustainability, and climate responsibility in practical ways.
These stories remind us that youth are not waiting for perfect systems before they act. They are responding creatively to urgent challenges, often with limited resources but extraordinary commitment.
What It Means to Co-Create Education with Youth
The International Day of Education 2026 challenges us to move beyond symbolic youth inclusion toward meaningful co-creation. Co-creating education solutions means designing policies, programs, and learning environments with young people, not merely for them.
Too often, youth engagement in education is limited to consultations held after decisions have already been made. Advisory roles are created without real authority, and youth voices are invited without influence. This approach does not strengthen education systems; it weakens them. When young people are excluded from shaping decisions, policies fail to reflect lived realities, and implementation suffers.
True co-creation requires: Involving young people from agenda-setting to implementation, sharing decision-making power, not just platforms, resourcing youth participation fairly and sustainably, valuing lived experience as legitimate knowledge, building accountability and feedback mechanisms so youth can see the impact of their contributions. Co-creation recognizes that young people are experts in their own educational experiences. Their insights reveal gaps that data alone cannot capture.
How Education Systems Can Strengthen Youth Co-Creation
For co-creation to be effective, it must be institutionalized. Education systems must move beyond ad-hoc youth engagement and embed youth participation within governance, planning, and evaluation processes.
This means creating formal pathways for youth to contribute to curriculum development, education policy design, school governance, and monitoring and evaluation. It also means investing in youth capacity, through training, mentorship, and resources, so participation is not limited to those with privilege or access.
When youth engagement is intentional and well-resourced, education systems benefit from increased relevance, stronger community ownership, and more sustainable outcomes.
A Call to Action on the International Day of Education
On this International Day of Education 2026, the message is clear: education systems cannot be transformed without young people as co-creators. Youth are not the problem education must fix; they are partners education must engage.
To policymakers, educators, and institutions, you must move beyond symbolic inclusion. Share power, invest in youth leadership, recognize lived experience as knowledge essential to building equitable and future-ready education systems.
To young people, your leadership matters now. Your ideas are shaping education in real time. Continue to question, create, and collaborate, and demand meaningful engagement in the systems that affect your lives.
The power of youth in co-creating education solutions is not theoretical. It is visible in classrooms, communities, and innovations across the world. If we are serious about transforming education, we must be equally serious about partnering with young people to build it.
The future of education is not something youth are waiting to inherit.
It is something they are already helping to create.
Reference
www.arabafoundationinternational.org
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