Click to expand Image A preschool teacher reads to students at Dorothy I. Height Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, US, October 3, 2024. © 2024 Stephanie Scarbrough/AP Photo Children from across the globe have expressed support for expanding an international human rights treaty to require countries to provide free pre-primary and secondary education. More than 8,000 children from 40 countries responded to a United Nations survey requesting their views. Their message was loud and clear: education should be free, inclusive, and available for everyone throughout childhood. Play Video “If I were the boss of all the schools in the world,” one preschooler responded, “I’d make it so all children could go to pre-school for free … and all the teachers in every school are kind, give hugs, and help.”Country delegates will meet at the UN in Geneva in early September to decide whether to draft a fourth optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In a historic first, five children – from Croatia, Indonesia, Liberia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom – will also participate in the negotiations.If adopted, the new optional protocol would require countries to provide free public pre-primary education, beginning with at least one year, as well as free public secondary education. Many countries already do.Children surveyed said this was important. Many said pre-primary education is out of reach for many children because of unaffordable fees. “It is not fair that access to [education] depends on how much money parents have,” a preschooler in France said in a message.Teenagers identified multiple barriers to universal free secondary education, notably school fees and hidden costs. Blaming high registration fees “which parents cannot afford,” a group of children from Madagascar said that “[i]n our community, almost none of the children go to school because of poverty.”But the children didn’t just highlight problems, they proposed solutions. Australian students responded that the optional protocol “represents a powerful opportunity to redefine education not just as a basic service, but as a foundation for democracy, dignity, and full societal participation.” They said that a new treaty that “embeds inclusive, accessible, and free education from early childhood through secondary schooling is a critical step toward a world where no child is left behind—not because of who they are, where they live, or what they need to thrive.”Children have spoken with clarity and urgency. Adults should show they’re listening.