Pop superstar and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Shakira visited the Max Payne Hand in Hand School for Bilingual Education in Jerusalem yesterday, advocating education, and was joined by her boyfriend, Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué i Bernabéu.
The singer also met Israeli president Shimon Peres.
The Max Payne School uses bilingual education, teaching both Jewish and Palestinian children. Each class is taught by two teachers, one Jewish, one Palestinian, in both Arabic and Hebrew.
She said, ‘My visit to Max Rayne school today here in Jerusalem—an inspirational school where students learn together, across all divides, speaking both Arabic and Hebrew, learning and playing together without difference—only reminded me, once again, that the most crucial decisions we can make for a better tomorrow concern how to raise and educate our children.
‘I’m convinced, as many people are, that investing in education is the best strategy for peace and global stability, and the earlier, the better,’ said Shakira. ‘Early investment, early childhood nutrition, and basic health care from birth through the age of six are essential for a child to develop the actual physical means to learn: to perform better in class, but also better throughout life.’
Early education remains lacking in some parts of the world, with an estimated 67 million primary-age children out of school, according to UNESCO.
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