Group3_A | SDG 4: Quality Education
Group 3 Section A
Aarushi A BJ20001 |
Debarpan Musib BJ20015 | Sirisha Kolapalli BJ20024 | Pranav D
Kuriakose BJ20035 | Rajit Das BJ20040 | Swatik Patnaik BJ20055
(Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all[i])
Introduction
“There is no
waiting in life. Jump in with something that seems meaningful, tangible, but
also manageable” – Tara Abrahams[ii], visionary
social sector leader, focusing on impacting women’s issues, especially
education[iii].
Indeed, in the current times of climate change, pollution,
environmental degradation, and resource depletion, governments and businesses
need to jump in, to ensure that they are not only profitable, but also
meaningful and tangible to its stakeholders, including the environment.
The United Nations General Assembly, in September
2015, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that included 17 Sustainable
Development Goals. These serve as a “blueprint to achieve a better and more
sustainable future for all”, by addressing the challenges faced at a global
level.
Occupying the 4th number in this list, is
the SDG of Quality Education. Education is a basic human right for all because
it is necessary to make the most of the society we live in and hence importance
of quality education cannot be overstated. In 2018, nearly 260 million children
were out of school, which was one-fifth of the population in that age group. The
quality of education being imparted is questionable, as more than half of
children and adolescents worldwide were not meeting minimum proficiency
standards in reading and mathematics[iv].
Against this backdrop, the targets set under this SDG
are:
-
Ensuring
free quality primary and secondary education for boys and girls.
-
Ensuring
access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education.
-
Ensuring
access to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education.
-
Substantially
increasing youths and adults with relevant technical and vocational skills
-
Increasing
inclusion of disabled or disadvantaged individuals, and eliminating gender disparities
-
Incorporating
education for sustainability development and lifestyles amongst learners
-
Building
and upgrading education facilities, expanding number of scholarships to developing
countries, and increasing the supply of qualified teachers[v].
Relevance of SDG to India
India is an emerging nation with
substantial intellectual potential. Research during 2018 indicated
that Indians are considered the hardest working, and then comes the Mexicans
and the Americans[vi]. As the country is
developing, so should the quality of education, encouraging its citizens to
seek knowledge and increase productivity. It also ensures that the citizens are
capable to vote sensibly and help improve the standard of living in the
society.
The statistical reports of 2019 state that
nearly 27% of the Indian population was below 14 years[vii],
out of which 32 million[viii]
children were deprived of school education in India. The number of schools
providing complete education until high school is limited to 2 percent[ix].
Improper infrastructure and the unavailability of teaching resources have left
many schools unattended. The absence of proper sanitation facilities has caused
many girls to drop out of schools in rural India.
Despite the government’s efforts through
‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, ‘beti bachao beti padhao’, and many other schemes, the
progress has been very slow. The children of the under privileged are forced
into child labor to boost their household income. The cost of education has
also been increasing with the rampant growth of private institutions that have
monetized education. We notice a huge disparity in the quality of education
between private schools and their public counterparts.
Many factors hinder the process of
achieving the target of free and quality education. It is the responsibility of
every entity to contribute to this goal.
Business Implications and Responses
Industrialization and technical automation have
reduced the number of jobs that require physical hardships. The growing
population needs to upgrade their skills and be educated so that their earning
levels continue to rise. We discuss the proactive schemes of a few businesses
that have strived for quality education.
P&G: The
Proctor & Gamble Company has initiated the ‘P&G Shiksha’ program
as a part of its CSR activities in 2005 that collaborated with different NGOs
and supported more than 1800 schools. The program’s objectives are to improve
education infrastructure and learning outcomes, empower girls through
education, support nearby communities and educate differently abled children.
Nearly 1700 classrooms are renovated in collaboration with the NGO partner
‘Round Table India’ (RTI). Organizing short learning camps and launching
exclusive programs for early childhood education are the two unique solutions
handled by the program, along with the NGO ‘Pratham’. Digital learning has also
been promoted since 2017 along with the NGO ‘Educational Initiatives’ that
facilitates learning through computer-based learning tools. The initiatives
taken under the program are appreciable and might bring a favorable outcome if
continued vigorously in the long term[x].
Bajaj Auto: Bajaj Auto has spent Rs 36.43 Cr for CSR for
promotion of education in India for the year 2019-2020. It has carried out a
Room to Read programme in Maharashtra to set up 54 classrooms. Overall, it has
established 154 rooms benefitting 19,245 students. Through its Swadhar
programme in Pune, Bajaj distributes books to under privileged children to improve
their reading habits. As of now the project reaches out to 12,000 children. Furthermore,
it has worked in setting up Anganwadis in Uttarakhand with its United Way of
Delhi programme. Already 20 Anganwadis have been set up in Udhamsinghnagar, and
additional 100 such Anganwadis have been planned to set up. Consequently, the
area has witnessed a 25% rise in admission of children in them. On top of these,
it has supported Cultural and Educational Enterprise for the development of a
descriptive online encyclopedia of the rich Indian culture, heritage, and arts.
Next, Bajaj Auto has been working to empower street children with education
with its 21 programmes ranged from identification of dropouts, enrolling, and
supporting them to continue with their education unto graduation. It has a
target of 2672 children currently from 8 government schools[xi].
Asian Paints: Asian Paints has directly positively impacted more
than 28000 people through their education initiatives in 2019-20. Through their
Naya Savera programme in 15 centres across 9 states they help school dropouts
to lead a decent life. It helps the unfortunate children with career guidance,
mentorship, vocational training along with foundational knowledge with digital
literacy. Furthermore, with their Gyan Shakti Programme they aim to educate
students in classes 3 – 8 across 6 schools in Rohtak and Patancheru. The focus
is on remedial learning in Maths, Science, and English. Skills such as
collaboration, creativity, communication are imparted through technology
enabled methods[xii].
Amazon: With its wide range of initiatives Amazon has been
working to offer skill development for the youths. It has partnered with an NGO
to train special- abled young adults. With its National Apprenticeship
Promotion Scheme, it aims to train workers across its fulfillment centers in
India whose careers were impacted by the pandemic. It tries to inculcate
technological, and operational skills in youths to enable them to prepare for
better work opportunities[xiii].
Analysis
By not giving enough importance to quality education,
India would face a scarcity of skilled workers. This would increase the costs
of the companies as they would have to train their workers or attract skilled
workers from other regions.
In this age of globalization, countries that produce
more educated individuals would have comparative and competitive advantages
over others in certain industries. The greater availability of skilled workers
would invariably lead to greater competition among workers and thus firms would
enjoy having efficient workforce. Moreover, skilled workers need lesser
management and are usually more productive when dealing with new technologies[xiv].
As people get more educated, their spending potential
increases. Amartya Sen has argued that population growth would slow down if women
were educated to become employable in formal sectors. As women spend more time
working, births decrease[xv].
As the members in a family decrease, the spending power of that family
improves. Greater consumer spending implies faster growth of the economy and is
thus beneficial for businesses.
Scarcity of quality education and gender bias would force
female students to drop out in favour of male students. This aggravates poverty
trap. As girls do not get educated, they grow up and become dependent on the
male breadwinners. This brings down the consumer spending capabilities of the
families.
Furthermore, lack of the availability of quality
education would lead to dropouts. Dropouts often get translated into child labour.
The impact of child labour is very detrimental. Child workers are exploited and provided lower
wages than their adult counterparts. Missing out on schooling in early childhood
would make it tougher for these individuals to learn new skills in the future[xvi].
Businesses today look out for individuals who can hone new skills fast.
Technological progress has made this highly imperative.
Moreover, with education, a person from an economic backward
region would be able to migrate to regions where his/her skills are in demand. Remittances
sent back home from there could be spent in the home region and thus uplift the
economy here. Apart from the above, enough amalgamation of wealth could lead to
investment in their home regions and create new business opportunities here.
Suggested Path Ahead
In coming years, some of the key targets that India
should aspire for in the domain of quality education:
o
Ensuring
access to quality primary and secondary education to everybody
o
Ensuring
a Gross Enrollment Ratio of close to 100% in secondary and higher education
o
Consistently
reducing the dropout rates at the secondary education level
o
Pegging
the Gender Parity Index at one for all levels of education
o
Ensuring
equal access to vocational, technical training for all to improve employment
levels
o
Providing
necessary amenities like reliable electricity, IT and computers, toilets for
girls, etc. at schools for better learning of students
o
Providing
specialty equipment and individualized learnings for differently abled poor
children
o
Providing
professionally qualified instructors and teachers for all, at every level of education
Despite various schemes set in place to meet these targets
such as the Samagra Shiksha, Integrated Child Development Services and many
others, achieving these targets requires new thinking that can leverage innovations
and provide better learning outcomes.
Another possible road ahead is implementing the F.I.T
approach. The FIT approach integrates Financing, Innovation and Technology to
aid the development of education. Financing possibilities for education can be
extended to offerings like Impact Bonds, Income-share agreements, and outcome-based
funding. Innovations like applied learning at middle and secondary schools,
peer-teacher learning and alternative credentials in higher and tertiary
education, would ensure greater improvement. Technological advancements in
artificial intelligence (AI), educational robotics and extended reality can
boost the sector as well. Keeping these factors in mind, a research by KPMG has
underlined 10 recommendations to the state governments of India:
-
Think
FIT: Altering outlook through the lens of technology, innovation, and
financing.
-
Commit
to a concrete plan: Incorporate these into state policies, define objectives,
define milestones, and review performance.
-
Large-scale
collaborations with the private sector.
-
Prioritize
data: Data repositories need to be developed to track progress, as F.I.T
approach thrives on data.
-
Promote
learning and transparency: This can be achieved through forums, digital repositories,
and other information sharing channels in the form of a mandate.
-
Engaging
in bottom-up planning: Keep the stakeholders, i.e., parents, institutions at
the center of planning activities.
-
Strengthening
governance and monitoring mechanisms.
-
Strengthening
legal and regulatory frameworks.
-
Effective
communication.
-
Advocate
these actively through senior leaders in the government machinery[xvii].
Company Reports:
Amazon: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/pdfBuilderDownload?name=sustainability-all-in-september-2020
Asian
Paints: https://www.asianpaints.com/sustainability/pdf/Sustainability%20Report%202019-20%20LowRes.pdf
P&G:
https://in.pg.com/sustainability-reports/
https://www.asianpaints.com/sustainability/pdf/Sustainability%20Report%202019-20%20LowRes.pdf
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