Group 5_C | SDG 4 : Quality Education

  

Introduction to SDG

The death of a father can be a difficult time to go through in anybody’s life. Having to take up the responsibility of your family, as an uneducated woman of 18 years of age will make it much more difficult. And that is exactly what Seema Kumari from Wair, UP, had to go through. And yet, she rose spectacularly. She now runs a tailoring centre in her village, and handles everything, makes bank transactions, and is upskilling her tailoring venture using measurements. She thanks Shiksha+, an adult education program of the Shiv Nadar Foundation. “Seema has changed for good. Her overall personality has also transformed. She is more confident”, says Baby Gola, her former teacher.

That is the kind of impact education can have on a person’s life. Seema’s story is one of millions who have uplifted themselves through education. Education has the potential to transform one’s personality, skill sets, interactions with others, and thus drastically improve one’s outlook for the future. Not just at individual level, increase in education standards help businesses to grow as well as nations to develop at a much faster pace. A lot of studies support this argument as a recent study by Goldman Sachs proved that providing education and skill opportunities to businesses could help them grow as much as 86% in just 18 months. According to UNHDP and UNESCO reports, the enrolment ratio, i.e. the ratio of students enrolled in secondary school to the population of potential secondary school children, is higher in developed nations than in developing nations.

In this context, the United Nations adopted Universal Education as its fourth goal to ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. It caters to diverse stakeholders, from pre-school children to adults, from teachers and government to indegenous people and people with disabilities. The SDG-4 has consists of following components as mentioned in Sustainable Development India Report, 2020 :

• Early childhood care, Development and Education: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”

• Elementary and School Education: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes”

• Higher Education: “By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university”

• Skill Development and Vocational Education: “By 2030,to substantially increase the number of youth & adults who have the relevant skills, including technical & vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs & entrepreneurship”

• Conducive Education Facilities that are Child, Disability and Gender Sensitive:“By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations”

Relevance of the SDG to India

The core of India's education policy paper is backed by the firm belief that the accessibility of improved higher education will be an important driver in the development of the 1.4 million-strong Indian population.

India has come a long way, starting from a meagre 12% literacy rate in 1947 to 74.04% in 2011. The female literacy rate has also improved from 8.86% in 1951 to 65.46% in 2011. India, especially rural India, is mostly an agriculture-based economy, and hence, there exists a great chasm between urban and rural literacy rates. The rural rates for literacy stood at 71%, while those for urban areas were 86%.

The GoI has taken several steps to bridge this gap. 

The government has taken care of continuing education through the Samagra Shiksha scheme which subsumes the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher’s Education. The main aim of the scheme is to provide quality, continuous education to learners of all ages and backgrounds. 

The Government has implemented the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme [also known as Anganwadi] for children aged 0 to 6 to help in immunisation, dietary supplementation and non-formal education before joining the school system.

The Government also runs the  Skill India initiative which focuses on providing employable and vocational skills to over 40 crore Indians. This initiative subsumes the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). The PMKVY has enjoyed great success by training and upskilling the youth of the country and also holds the record of placing 54% of its enrolled students since its inception in 2015.

All these initiatives seem to have worked towards helping write India’s growth story. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) for higher education has increased from 8.1% in 2001 to 26.3% in 2019. The GER for women in particular has risen a lot from 6.7% in 2001 to 19.8% in 2019. The Gender Parity Index for higher education also stands at 1 currently which shows that access to higher education is tending towards an equitable position.

While India seems to be taking steps in the right direction, a lot more needs to be done. The GER for developed countries like USA, Germany and UK stood at 85.8% , 68.3% and 56.5% respectively while those of developing countries such as China, Brazil and South Africa stood at 51.6%, 50.6% and 19.4% respectively. 

India has started its journey towards creating a more equitable and educated society but greater strides must be taken especially in education in order to maintain and improve its standing in the competitive economic structure of the world.

Fig: Index score of Indian States and UTs on SDG4

Business Implications and Response

The reason why businesses are a major stakeholder when it comes to furthering quality education is that education, and training, are the primary forces behind building up the human capital of the world. For the world to grow its business opportunities in the future, it is imperative that we work on the SDGs now, education being an important area of focus.

Why does the immense education gap matter for businesses? By far, the most important aspect of education affecting businesses is the skills of employees - and alarmingly enough, companies are struggling to find the right people for their jobs. Referred to as the ‘skills gap’, reports suggest that close to 40% businesses don’t have the rightly skilled workforce, a drastic consequence which would be tackled if the cause of education is taken with utmost seriousness. The impact of lack of quality education results in companies throughout the world facing immense challenges in hiring recruits, and once hired, the challenges in keeping employees updated with changing skill demands. In fact, a research conducted by Udemy shows that more and more employees expect the skills required to do their jobs will change within five years, which further necessitates the importance of quality education, and how businesses will have large implications from the state of education. What is required of businesses is to evaluate how the global skills gap would affect their value chains in the future, and whether the risks would overpower the opportunities or not. The one way in which businesses can immensely build the skill of their existing workforce is to invest heavily in their talent pipeline, by striving for increased and refocused investment in developing their company’s skillforce. With rising technological advancements, it is also imperative that companies assess how technology would aid skill development of their workforce. Another reason why it is necessary for businesses to refocus their efforts and investments into education is that an educated, skilled workforce would ensure the companies to build brand leadership and equity in the industry. Investing in education can open up opportunities for businesses and strike a chord with consumers who are socially conscious and responsible. Apprenticeships and provision of community-based programmes are two avenues through which businesses can invest widely in education. It builds the labor force and aids companies in capacity building. A rising number of companies are teaming up with partners to maximise the reach of their investment - their work increasingly impactful as people from marginalised groups, like the poor and the women, are brought into the formal economy through education and employment.

The graph indicates the number of statements made by companies about the SDG 4 - a clear indication of how more and more companies are looking at the SDGs and are committed to furthering quality education. This graph shows that some of the biggest companies of the world, ranging various industries and sectors, actively acknowledge and recognize the need for engaging stronger efforts into education and skill development.

Responses of a few top firms towards Quality Education:- P&G : The firm works towards improving access to holistic education for underprivileged children through their flagship CSR program ‘P&G Shiksha’ in India. The initiative, launched in 2005, focuses its efforts in three major areas: improving the education infrastructure, empowering girls through education and improving the learning outcomes. Over the years, in partnership with NGOs , it has built and supported more than 1800 schools across India that have impacted more than 1.4 million children. They have also partnered with several state governments, like Himachal Pradesh to set up and support pre-schools within the government school. ITC : ITC’s primary education programme is designed to provide children from weaker sections access to education with a focus on learning outcomes and retention. The intervention is closely aligned to 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan'. The initiative was operational in 26 districts across 13 states and covered 0.84 lakhs students in 2019-20. Additionally, in partnerships with the education departments of Karnataka, Assam and West Bengal to train government school teachers, 225 government officials and 2,876 government school teachers were trained and 58,988 children were covered through child friendly pedagogy. The programme has also provided infrastructure support to 1842 primary schools and anganwadis. Pidilite : To encourage higher education in the unprivileged sections of the society, the firm has commenced various educational centers. They strive to provide basic learning facilities to the children in rural areas. They have assisted in installation of more than 300 learning softwares in rural areas to refine the level of primary education. Project WAGALE guides students with lesser learning abilities by providing them learning sessions through practical methods, visual representation, and interaction with academically better performing students. More than 6000 children are enrolled under this initiative. Shri N N Mehta Memorial Education Trust provides scholarships worth INR 36 lakhs to 227 deserving students for higher education. Amazon:

As part of its community focus, Amazon works to increase access to high quality computer science education through its Amazon Future Engineer Program, an initiative to increase the access to computer education for people from underprivileged communities each year. The initiative is part of Amazon’s $50 million investment in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education. Further, the programme has also invested an additional $20 million in organizations that promote computer science and STEAM education. Under this initiative, the firm undertakes the following activities. • Inspires thousands of elementary school students to try computer science. • Funds Intro and AP computer science courses for thousands of high schools. • Awards 100 students each year with $40,000 college scholarships to study computer science and guaranteed, paid internship offers at Amazon. Bain and Company: The company works with school systems and high-impact education nonprofits to transform education and help students from traditionally underserved communities have the chance to lead lives of choice and opportunity. It partners with education providers, businesses, government and others to make clear the good jobs such programs should target, to highlight best practices and to bring successful career connected learning programs to scale. The focus is on career connected learning, human capital, school system, child and youth outreach and educational technology. Reckitt Benckiser : The company has worked extensively towards educating the general public about health and hygiene measures. Over the past five years, their health and hygiene message has impacted approximately 956 million people, with the target to reach one billion by 2025. They have also taken initiatives like the hand wash campaign, which is now a part of the school curriculum in nine Indian states, and soon the number is expected to reach 14. Analysis and Suggested Path ahead:

The major factors motivating companies to take actions towards any SDG include a variety of parameters. They can be internal, goodwill or regulations imposed by the government or important international bodies, compliance of which become necessary to carry out business as usual. The key drivers for taking actions towards SDGs can be categorized broadly as :

Regulatory Requirements : Pressure from international regulators on the governments translates directly into laws and incentives for the corporates. Companies try to comply with such laws by means of CSR activities, placeholders in growth agenda, fund allocations and donations.

Vision alignment : With the rise of awareness among leadership of corporates, companies have started pro-actively taking steps to progress in the SDG targets. Companies have started looking internally, assessing their contributions and alignments in all processes with the goals set by the UN to achieve sustainability. Leaders at different levels are using their knowledge and skills to create an impact.

Brand Value : As people become aware about sustainability and the role of private firms in supporting the issues related to sustainability, it is important for companies to work towards maintaining a positive brand value. Often companies have been boycotted and criticized even by their own employees for greenwashing and failure to comply with SDGs. Google recently faced a lot of criticism for using offsets as a measure for achieving its sustainability targets from its own employees.

When it comes to education, along with the above factors, investments in education and skill development creates a symbiotic relationship between society and the company. As companies invest in developing skilled labour through education, they are creating a better workforce for themselves as well.

Even with all intent and motivation, companies face challenges in achieving their sustainability targets. These include but are not limited to policy issues, financial constraints and perception issues.

Policy Issues - There is sometimes a lack of coherence between the National policies and the local needs. Education, being the State subject, is governed by the State governments which makes it more difficult to coordinate.

Financial Constraints - There is a substantial financial gap, particularly in India, for supporting the global SDGs. This is mainly due to lack of private-public financial collaborations and appropriate policies.

Perception issues - There is  still a lack of basic understanding of underlying long-term benefits to the business by supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. Most small businesses are still motivated by short-term profitability.

However, where there is a will, there is a way. A few companies and people have created a roadmap to follow, using innovation as the tool against the possible challenges to sustainability. 

Jubiliant Lifesciences focused on strengthening the rural primary education, engaging parents, students, teachers and local leaders. They launched the  ‘Project Muskaan’, that focused on active and experiential learning, enhancing the quality of education in rural India. Through its program and scholarship initiatives, a substantial decrease in absenteeism, increase in engagement of parents, increase in student enrolment and quality of education was achieved.

The NEP put forth by the government of India is well aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the nation, however to what extent it will be effective on the overall population depends on a plethora of factors. Analysing the number of dropouts from previous years, it is evident that as the level of education increases, the number of dropouts increases. The top four reasons for leaving education remained lack of interest, financial constraints, engagement in economic activities, and engagement in domestic activities. 

What is worrisome is that engagement in economic activities was one of the prime reasons for drop out even in the 6-14 age group. To ensure education reforms serve the purpose of educating the children and youth, it is important to understand the reason behind choosing to not have education. Financial issues prevailing in the lower income or unstable income segments of society, forces children to take up jobs to sustain their families and themselves. These are the segments most in need of education and if the reforms in benefits fail to successfully reach these children, it would make very little sense however good a picture the numbers might paint.

So what can be done?

Education reforms targeted especially at the segments most in need of a reform is needed. While definitely NEP is a welcome to the obsolete structure of education followed in the country, NEP or no NEP, the way ahead must be focused on ensuring the efforts have an effect on the needy.

It is important that businesses, people, and the government come together in the fight towards a sustainable world. Of the many possibilities, few that can be adopted to march ahead in achieving the sustainable goals, especially related to education can be :

• Collaboration with partners to advance education for sustainable development and connecting it to job skills and career paths. 
• Investing in employee training and education for sustainable development. 
• Sharing business learnings on what works and what doesn’t for sustainable development. 
• Highlighting the business demand for sustainable development skills and knowledge.
• Educating and engaging stakeholders on sustainable development, this includes suppliers, investors, policymakers and customers. 
• Harnessing the potential of the private sector as they can provide expertise in project management, innovation and replication of good practices which can lead to achievement of the SDGs; 
• There is a need for creating a framework of efficient public private partnerships for urban public service delivery in services like sustainable transport, waste management, wastewater management, sanitation, etc., that would help to drive efficiencies in these areas; 
• Building an ecosystem for entrepreneurship and job creation in areas of sustainability;
• Finally, a robust data management at the macro level will help to identify existing scalable actions and gaps where impactful investments can be made.

References:

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