What you need to know
- Tim Cook sat down for an interview at San Jose State University to discuss education.
- He appeared alongside global education activist Malala Yousafzai.
- Apple announced its partnership with the Malala Fund in 2018.
Tim Cook has visited San Jose State University, where he gave an interview alongside Malala Yousafzai on the subject of education, tech, and privacy.
As reported by NBC Bay Area, Cook joined Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban on her way to school, to discuss a shared goal of educating young women and girls around the world.
The Malala Fund's goal is to educate 130 million girls globally, by giving them access to education and the tools they need to further their learning. In particular, Apple's partnership with the organization is focused on the education of girls in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey and Nigeria, countries where girls are routinely denied the chance to learn.
Of the partnership Tim Cook said:
"Education is embedded in Apple's DNA... It is the great equalizer. If you fix that, you fix a lot of other struggles."
Apple was the Malala Fund's first laureate partner, providing financial support as well as helping staff on the ground to push out its message.
SJSU's student newspaper The Spartan Daily also highlighted some of Tim Cook and Malala's other answers during the interview, in which Cook spoke about the importance of teaching everyone coding skills before they graduate. Malala also said that education should change to keep up with technology, and that technology could be used to bring education to places where it previously had not been possible, such as refugee camps. You can read the full thread of answers here!
One SJSU student further asked Cook about the government role in regulating technology, to which Cook replied:
"Privacy must be regulated. We see privacy as a fundamental human right. I worry about a world in which surveillance is the norm."
