Speech by Hon. Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80) on 27 September 2025.

Madam President, Members of the Assembly, Excellencies, colleagues and friends.

It is my honour to address this Assembly on behalf of Grenada and the Caribbean Community through Caricom.

Madam President, I extend my heartfelt congratulations on your election as President of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. We look forward to working with you under the guiding theme of “Better Together” and to supporting your efforts in advancing peace, sustainable development, and inclusive reform within the United Nations.

We meet today in a time of paradox. The headlines tell us of division, instability, and conflict. Yet, never have human beings had such access to innovation, creativity, and opportunity.

In one corner of the world, classrooms are reduced to rubble. In another, laboratories create breakthroughs in science and technology that can transform our future.

A paradox

In one hemisphere, children walk miles to fetch water before school. In another, children are using artificial intelligence in their lessons. A further paradox.

Paradox defines our era: progress and peril, innovation and instability, hope and hardship coexisting side by side.

And so, my remarks today are centred on the one force powerful enough to bind these contradictions together — the only force that can turn innovation into inclusion and conflict into cooperation. That force is education.

That is the simple, yet profound, truth: education is the single greatest social, economic and creative equaliser we possess. It transforms circumstance into possibility. It turns the child of a labourer into a leader, the daughter of a seamstress into a scientist, the son of a fisherman into an innovator.  

This is the heart of my message: education is not a narrow path to employment, it is a broad road to resilience, to innovation, and to peace.

And, Madam President, it saves people; not just from economic poverty, but from the poverty of diminished possibility.

Education as a lifeline

I have seen this. I have lived this. And now, I am privileged to lead this, in and for my country.

For me, education was a bridge from limitation to possibility. It was education that carried me from a small hillside village in St David, Grenada, where my family fetched water from a public standpipe, to this Assembly Hall today. It was not wealth that brought me here. It was not privilege. It was access. Access to teachers who believed in me. Access to opportunities that were modest but life-changing. Access to the chance to learn, even when the path was uncertain.

But my story is not unique.

It is echoed in the resilience of Caribbean families who sacrifice for their children’s schooling, in the ingenuity of students who make the most of scarce access and even scarcer resources, and in the determination of communities that rebuild schools after every hurricane.

This is the shared story of Caricom. A story of people who have learned to adapt, to innovate, and to persist. Always with education as our anchor. And yet, today, we must admit that the definition of education itself is changing.

Education can no longer be defined solely by university lecture halls or college campuses. Around the world, young people are shaping their futures in new ways through technical training, vocational education, and digital skills.

A certificate in coding can be as powerful as a law degree. A credential in renewable energy can open doors as wide as a medical license. A diploma in advanced manufacturing can transform not only an individual’s future, but the economic trajectory of an entire community. This broader vision of education is the reality we are embracing in Grenada and across the Caribbean.

In Grenada, we have embarked on transformative reforms to strengthen our education system and expand opportunities for students at all levels.

• We have established universal secondary education and passed legislation to raise the mandatory school age to 18, ensuring that more of our young people remain engaged in formal education. Not as charity, but as a matter of justice and national survival
• We have modernised school curricula to prepare our students for the future. Coding and technology clubs are now part of the school environment, and all students leaving primary school are assessed through electronic testing, prioritising both digital literacy and problem-solving skills
• We have placed student well-being at the heart of our reforms. Hiring additional counsellors, school feeding officers, and attendance officers to strengthen support for student mental health, nutrition, and engagement. We have also expanded our special education department and increased the number of early childhood officers, ensuring greater support for students with diverse learning needs, because in a small island state, every child’s potential is a national asset
• Additionally, and importantly, we have taken bold steps to make education more affordable and inclusive, eliminating school fees at the pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels. Free tuition is now also available at our 2 main technical and vocational institutions, widening access to post-secondary training and future skills development

Across the Caribbean Community, we are investing in skills for the new economy, such as digital literacy, renewable energy, climate adaptation and advanced technologies. In the case of advanced technologies, we are considering the teaching, understanding and use of AI and AI-related skills to enhance education access, delivery and outcome, as we understand that the jobs of tomorrow cannot be met with the skills of yesterday.

And through the Caribbean Future Skills Fund, conceived with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, we are pioneering an endowment model for education: one where international contributions are matched by local investment. This ensures that our young people gain not just training, but also a sense of ownership and responsibility. It is education with skin in the game from both donors and recipients.

This is not education as an abstract ideal. It is education as a lifeline, as resilience, preparing us to withstand the shocks of climate change and economic volatility. It is education as innovation, equipping us through powerful digital tools to turn necessity into opportunity. And it is education as sovereignty, ensuring that our destiny is not dictated by external forces, but shaped by the skills and creativity of our own people.

And when Grenada, Jamaica, or Dominica rebuilds a school after a hurricane, we are not just rebuilding classrooms. We are rebuilding futures. 

The power of partnerships

Education thrives when ideas and systems are shared across borders. Partnerships build better schools, yes. But more importantly, they build better citizens of the world.

For small states like mine, partnerships bring the reach and resources we cannot muster alone. They open doors to technologies and opportunities far beyond our shores. For larger states, partnerships with us offer something equally valuable: lessons in adaptation and creativity forged on the frontlines of hurricanes, pandemics, and economic shocks.

Together, these halves create something greater than either could achieve alone: an education system global in vision but local in impact.

That is why we call on donor countries, multilateral institutions, and the private sector not only to fund, but to co-create. Not only to give, but to learn. Because education is not charity. It is collaboration. It is investment in the kind of world we wish to leave behind.

Conflict, instability, and the attack on learning

And yet, Madam President, we must also speak honestly of the shadows that darken our world today. Wars rage. Economies falter. Communities fracture. And amid this turbulence, it is children who bear the heaviest burden.

When a school is reduced to rubble, when a teacher is silenced, when a family is forced to flee in fear, education becomes the first casualty of conflict. And when education is taken away, it is not only opportunity that dies, but hope itself.

We know too well what follows: ignorance that breeds division, exploitation that preys on vulnerability, extremism that fills the void, and cycles of despair that pass from one generation to the next. A child deprived of learning today becomes an adult deprived of dignity tomorrow. And a society deprived of educated citizens becomes a society deprived of peace.

That is why I say to this assembly: protecting education in times of conflict must be treated as a pillar of peacebuilding. Just as we rush to shelter the displaced and heal the wounded, we must also safeguard classrooms and teachers. Just as we protect hospitals, so too must we protect schools. Because, whether that child is in Palestine, in Haiti, in Sudan, or in Ukraine, their right to learn is as sacred as the right to life itself.

A child in Grenada, a child in Canada, or a child in Qatar all deserve the same opportunity to unlock knowledge, to connect with teachers and peers, and to shape their future. An attack on education is an attack on all. A commitment to education is a promise we make for all.

On conflicts and dialogue

From Guyana and Venezuela to Belize and Guatemala, from Haiti’s turmoil to the wars in Israel and Palestine, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, we see conflicts that have, as another casualty, the education of children. All children. Not the children of one side or another, but of all.

I urge all parties, regardless of history or grievance, to come to the table in a shared realisation that no child’s classroom should be traded for a battlefield, and no young mind should be collateral damage of political disputes. Dialogue is not weakness; it is the highest form of courage. It is the choice to preserve learning, to preserve hope, and to preserve the possibility of peace.

Education and the principle of peace

Grenada knows from experience that education thrives when nations stand in solidarity. Around the world, partners have trained our teachers, opened the doors of their universities, and strengthened our health and education systems.

From the Republic of Cuba to the Kingdom of Morocco, from the People’s Republic of China to the United Mexican States, and beyond, such partnerships have given thousands of our students opportunities in medicine, engineering, the sciences, and more, often offered in the spirit of friendship and even in times of difficulty.

It is regrettable that, at a time when we should be expanding such cooperation, restrictive measures and political divisions continue to weaken international collaboration and punish countries like Cuba that have sought to deliver that promise that education holds. Grenada hopes — for the sake of the Cuban people, and for the good or our region — that greater steps will be taken toward Cuba’s fuller engagement in the economic and social life of our hemisphere.

For Small Island States, every partnership in education and development is a lifeline. We cannot afford to see those lifelines severed by geopolitics.

Madam President, that is why I join my Caribbean colleagues in reaffirming our region as a Zone of Peace.

This principle is not simply a diplomatic phrase. It is a pledge to our people. Because conflict undermines development, and peace is the first investment in people. Other courageous champions of education have reminded us that classrooms must be defended even more fiercely than borders.

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has echoed the sentiments that in times of war, “The right to education should be defended just as we defend the right to food and shelter.” The children of Palestine deserve that right to education. They too, deserve the right to a future.

Gordon Brown, Graça Machel, Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai have carried this same conviction onto the global stage: that protecting learning is protecting humanity’s future.

Education cannot wait for the end of conflict; it must be safeguarded in spite of it. Governments, international organisations, civil society, and the private sector must become partners in this defense.

We must work together to rebuild schools and create systems that are resilient enough to withstand war and disasters. Partnership can be the difference between a child picking up a book and a child picking up a gun; between hope, and hopelessness.

Global call to action

The numbers speak for themselves. Each additional year of schooling raises a person’s earnings by an average of 10%. If every child in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty.

If all girls completed secondary school, child marriage would fall by two-thirds, and maternal deaths would drop by almost half. And if every adult worldwide had just 2 more years of education, global GDP would grow by trillions of dollars annually. These numbers show that education does not only change the fortunes of individuals, it changes the fortunes of nations. It shapes economies, democracies, and peace itself.

But let me be clear: technology without ethics is not enough. We must also teach our young people how to think critically, act ethically, and live responsibly in digital spaces.

Education must prepare not only workers for jobs, but also active and responsible citizens. Not only coders of software, but also stewards of truth. Not only innovators of technology, but also guardians of humanity.

Because we live in an age where misinformation travels faster than facts, and where algorithms can divide as easily as they can connect. In such a world, education must equip the next generation with the wisdom to discern, the courage to question, and the empathy to choose what is right.

Let us imagine, then, a different world: A world where a child at a standpipe in St David, Grenada, has the same access to knowledge as a child in New York or Tokyo. A world where a child in the rubble of Port-au-Prince can log on to a digital classroom and continue learning, despite the chaos around them. A world where a child in a refugee camp … stateless, but not hopeless … can study, dream, and prepare for a future beyond the fences that confine them.

That vision is within our reach. But it will not come by chance. It will come by the choices we make here, together, in this Assembly, and in partnership moving forward.

Conclusion

Madam President, colleagues and friends. Education is not only a policy. It is a promise. A promise that no matter the size of a nation, the colour of a passport, or the weight of a child’s circumstances, the door to opportunity remains open.

For Grenada and for Caricom, education is the antidote to ignorance, the pathway to resilience, and the seed of innovation. It is how we turn survival into sovereignty. It is how we transform vulnerability into vision.

So I urge this assembly: let us protect classrooms as fiercely as we protect borders. Let us value teachers as highly as we value treaties. Let us treat education not as a privilege for the few, but as a right for all. Because when we safeguard education, we safeguard peace. When we democratise knowledge, we democratise hope. And when we give a child — whether in St David, Port-au-Prince, Gaza, or a refugee camp — the tools to learn, we give humanity itself the tools to endure.

Let us resolve, together, that no classroom, no student, and no country will be left behind. And let us believe, together, that resilience is not just surviving the storms of our time, but building a world where education ensures we thrive beyond them.

Thank you.

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