Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education
Blog Authors:
Sarthak Jalali, Sharmishta R Somayaji, Shashwat Nandan, Shobhit Sharma, Shrey Bhala, Vivitsa Upasti
Group 2, Section A, PGDM (BM) 2019-21 Batch
Introduction
The sustainable development goal of Quality Education strives to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”. It aims to empower and facilitate current and future generations to meet their needs and, in the process, create an ecosystem of sustainable development. Education is an expansive field and has a lot of aspects to it because of which it has been subdivided into smaller, specific goals such as, by 2030, ensuring that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education. It also strives to impart quality vocational and tertiary education which is intended to lead to better employment opportunities and create a sustainable source of income for individuals. One of the primary objectives of quality education is to sensitize the population regarding issues like human rights, gender equality and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. In addition to enhancing the quality of education, it is imperative to enhance the quality of teachers, through whom most of the knowledge is imparted. The equity gap in education is aggravated by the shortage and uneven distribution of quality teachers. Another chink in the armor is the inadequate remuneration that is provided to the teaching community, especially in India. This deters the teachers from improving on their skills as they find no incentive to upgrade their skills. This is one SDG which is implicitly tied with all other SDGs because it is the cornerstone on which the foundation of other SDGs can be built and developed. Through this post we have tried to analyze the relevance of this SDG to India, its implications on business and the society and have tried to structure our ideas around the same.
Relevance
To understand the importance and relevance of education, we need to look at how it impacts us from an individualistic, societal, and sustainability perspective. To begin with, education plays a foundational role in determining the quality of life for individuals and helps them improve the standard of living. Education facilitates gaining knowledge and skills required for better career opportunities, higher income, and social status and also helps in developing a better understanding of the world surrounding, and opens the mind to newer perspectives. A higher quality of education from a young age also helps individuals develop a learning appetite, which is crucial for pursuing prospects and sustainably staying relevant in the ever-changing world.
From a societal point of view, higher quality of education leads to economic growth by increasing income levels and thereby consumption and production. It also helps citizens in becoming aware and sensitive towards societal issues, law, and order, and makes them more accountable towards the development of the nation. Finally, it benefits the country in the long-run by creating educated individuals who can drive development and lead the country to a better future.
To quote American politician and lawyer, Christine Gregoire, “Education is the foundation upon which we build our future.” It is interesting to see how education forms the basis to better understand the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations is aiming to achieve. Consider any goal - gender equality, reducing poverty, responsible consumption, and production, climate change - the first step towards every one of them would be to raise awareness and accountability which can be tackled with a higher quality of education. The recent examples of ignorance towards facts about climate change highlight the importance of educating people from grass-root levels.
Finally, from the perspective of sustainable development, a better quality of education creates individuals who can impart knowledge and guidance to the future generation. When a child who receives education today becomes a teacher tomorrow, it triggers a cyclic effect that drives education sustainably in the country. Thus, education today develops researchers, experts, and teachers for tomorrow and propel growth for the future.
Analysis
World
There has been a lot of progress made in terms of providing quality education worldwide. The number of children not going to school has dropped by almost half. The literacy rate has improved significantly. Apart from this, the number of girls going to school has also increased considerably.
However, due to certain challenges like poverty, wars, etc. the progress has not been satisfactory in some areas. In western Asia and North America, the number of children not going to school has increased due to the current armed conflict. A lot of disparity is also observed as the poorest households are four times more likely to be out of school compared to richest households in areas like the Sub-Saharan region.
India
Significant progress has been made in India in terms of providing primary education and improving the enrolment rate as well as the completion rate. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship scheme of the government aims at providing universal quality education to all Indians.
There are a few concerns that need to be addressed to improve the scenario of education in India. Although there is a 100% enrolment rate of girls at the primary level, the rate drops drastically to about 25% at the higher education level. Apart from this, India also needs to focus more on the quality part instead of quantity as 21% of the world's achievement gap for Quality Education goal is due to India.
Suggested Path
The major goal that needs to be achieved is that all girls and boys must receive free primary and secondary education by 2030. Apart from this, providing equal access to vocational training, gender-neutral and wealth neutral opportunities is also the objective of the goal.
There are a few major challenges that need to be addressed for achieving the goal. More focus needs to be given towards girl education as one in four girls in developing countries is not in school. Apart from this, the conflict-prone areas also need special attention as about half of out-of-school children of primary school age belong to these conflict-prone areas.
The way forward from here should be to make a uniform and a stable long-term plan for improving education worldwide and at the same time, the local issues of different areas should be taken into account while executing the plan.
Company Initiatives
In recent times, the international education community has realized that Government and NGOs alone are not sufficient in achieving the goal of quality education. It is imperative to understand the role that the private sector can play. Corporates have deep pockets and resources which can be leveraged to improve learning outcomes globally. Many businesses have made strong commitments to realize the goal of education and have worked with several partners in achieving them. Corporates can play a transformative role in elevating education and given below are a few such examples.
Global Initiatives
Lego
Lego recognized that Lego bricks can be used as a tool for teaching so it created a specific arm “Lego Education” for this purpose. It is able to improve learning outcomes in STEM fields. Lego’s solutions were designed with a long term focus to remain relevant in the education landscape.
IBM
IBM’s program “KidSmart Early Learning”, a partnership with United Way has worked towards using technology to help young kids begin studying around the globe. They have spent about $144m towards this cause.
Econet Wireless Group
In Zimbabwe, Econet Wireless Group started to invest in education through giving scholarships which impacted over 2,00,000 students in the country. It uses its mobile technology expertise to improve access to education.
PwC
PwC US has over 41,000 employees in the United States and has launched an initiative “Earn Your Future” to help reduce the gap in the education system in the United States. It aims to equip educators with the necessary skills to help develop financial skills in students. PwC has been successful in sponsoring educator training in more than 500 schools. The investment for 5 years was approximately US $190m.
Apart from global initiatives which we have seen above, there are several initiatives taken at the India level as well, which are mentioned below:
Indian Initiatives
Tata Steel Limited - Promotion of Education including Special Education
This major CSR project having a budget of INR 85 crores is based out of Jharkhand and Orissa region. The company has signed an MOU with Orissa govt to construct 30 schools across the state to improve the quality of primary education. The company has also formed school management committees (SMC) to ensure better governance of its projects.
This initiative has impacted more than 2L students of Orissa and has encouraged the rise in attendance to 90%. Moreover, in light of this initiative, 1165 habitations have been made child labor free zone by the end of 2018.
Hero Motocorp Limited - Project Catch them Young with Road Safety Clubs (RSC)
This PAN-India project budgeted approximately at INR 82 crores is primarily targeting the young population to sensitize them about road safety. T the program also supports 2000+ student police cadets (SPCs) and help them in their leadership and personality development programs.
HDFC Bank Limited – Learning made fun; Promoting Education Initiatives
This is again a PAN-India project with a budget of nearly INR 360+ crores. Unlike the above two programs mentioned, this program primarily targets schoolteachers. This program seeks to improve the quality of teaching and thereby benefiting the students in their learning.
The program has covered a very wide horizon impacting more than 1 Lac schools and 10 Lac teachers across the country.
ITC Limited - The Primary Education Program
The program spans across 18 states with the allocated budget of INR 290.7 crores. The core principle of this program is to provide basic education to children from poor sections of society. The programs not only help in providing quality education to the students but also aids in ensuring proper sanitation facilities are available. Nearly 400 Child Cabinets and Water and Sanitation Committees (WATSAN) were formed to implement the same
Implications
Malala Yousufzai famously declared as she received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2014, “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” She wasn’t far from the truth, as education is one of the few ways that true change can be affected, that too at the grassroots levels spanning numerous spheres and walks of life. As governments are criticized for creating market failures around the world, one area where their intervention in terms of policy and framework can’t be faulted is education. Across the different levels of education, the policy framework plays an extremely important role, especially in terms of the quality of learning enjoyed by students.
As these students become part of the labor force, their unique offerings and skills will augment businesses. Moreover, discourse on the 4th sustainable development goal and gender equality are inextricably linked with each other. It isn’t rocket science- steps taken today to correct gender imbalances in educational institutions can revolutionize workplaces tomorrow. This will require a slew of new HR policies, which will hopefully shape equal workplaces, a need of the hour. Education is for all, and it’s slowly dawning upon lawmakers and policymakers [1] to make education and policies more inclusive. As the education system evolves to become more diverse, this will be reflected in workplaces tomorrow. Key business decisions will change to become more gender-sensitive and sustainable. It is now widely accepted that women are instrumental in sustainable development [2] and businesses are likely to adopt more sustainable practices in conducting business and trade. Education can aid organizations in playing an active role in achieving all the SDGs at a very grassroots level.
References
Thank you for sharing such content. Please keep sharing. For Quality education Plaese keep following us.
ReplyDeleteThis Blog is very informatibe for us.
ReplyDeleteCheck: Quality Education
Visit Website: EtoosIndia