GOAL 4 : QUALITY EDUCATION

Education has proven to promote economic growth and be one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty. Illiteracy cost the global economy an estimated US $1.2 trillion in 2015. More than 790 million people are either completely illiterate or functionally illiterate. Without quality and accessible education, people in both rich and poor countries can become trapped in a cycle of poverty with limited opportunities for employment or income generation. This cycle is often perpetuated with children needing to leave school due to the obligation to work and provide support for the family. Research shows that for every US $1 invested in early childhood education, it is estimated to lead to a return as high as US $17 for the most disadvantaged and impoverished children. Many of the poor work as daily laborers or run microenterprises. The more educated they are, the more likely it is that they will start a business and that their businesses will be profitable. In impoverished areas of Uganda, for example, owners of household enterprises who had completed primary education earned 36% more than those with no education, and those who had completed lower secondary education earned 56% more. It is estimated that 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty – a 12% drop in people living on less than US $1.25 a day – if all students in low-income countries attained basic reading skills. One extra year of schooling increases an individual’s earnings by up to 10%, and each additional year of schooling raises average annual gross domestic product by 0.37%.

Equal opportunity in life requires equal access to a basic education

Fewer than 10% of countries have laws that help ensure full inclusion in their education systems, according to a UNESCO report published in 2020 – and 40% of the poorest countries have failed to support “learners at risk” during COVID-19. While many countries are able to provide adequate primary education, many more struggle with quality and availability; this has been particularly concerning in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Southeast Asia, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Human Capital Report. According to UNICEF, more than 175 million children worldwide have not been receiving pre-primary education, and inequality in terms of access remains high particularly among the poor and disadvantaged. While nearly two-thirds of all countries have attained gender parity in primary education, girls are still less likely than boys to start secondary education; disability and membership in an ethnic minority can present further obstacles. In addition to boosting the enrolment of children in basic education, a greater focus should be placed on learning infrastructure – on training teachers, and creating healthy and safe learning environments not only during school hours but also at home.

Providing greater access to a basic education is essential for advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Alongside efforts to increase access, more concerted efforts are needed to improve quality. This could be aided at least in part by introducing clearer, more widely-recognized global standards to benchmark learning outcomes and enable less-siloed education and more individualized learning paths. One widely shared, persistent barrier to providing a broadly accessible, adequate basic education is cost. According to UNESCO’s review of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (precursors to the SDGs targeted to 2015), an additional $22 billion would be needed every year in order to meet basic education targets for 2030. And, according to a UNESCO report published in 2020, 41% of countries were not conducting meaningful surveys on individual education characteristics such as disabilities – or making related data available. This underlines an acute need for new financing and data collection models, particularly in developing countries. Technological innovation could be one means to help address the issue, especially when it comes to children in rural areas and those regularly migrating with their parents.

Relevant Continuing Education

Technical and vocational training is often unjustly neglected by education systems

Employers have long been warning of widening gaps between the skills in demand and those that workers actually have – while governments have touted a need to foster more technical talent if countries want to be globally competitive. One report published by Deloitte estimated that 2.4 million positions in the manufacturing sector alone could remain unfilled between 2018 and 2028, with a potential economic impact of $2.5 trillion. Without adequate modifications to education and training systems, this gap will only worsen. Closing it promises to only become more complex, as skills requirements change at an accelerating pace – particularly in emerging technology fields. This calls for greater collaboration between the public and private sectors – in particular, more needs to be done to better balance the goals and desires of policy-makers, politicians, and educational institutions with those of entrepreneurs and investors. There is a need to better understand the linkages between these sometimes disparate interests, and ways they can be combined to serve people, the environment, and broader economies in healthier and more complementary ways.

In 2019, Germany introduced a national continuing-education strategy based on a more holistic culture that takes into account the interests of the government, industry, and trade unions – and employs algorithmic matching, financing, and the visualization of competencies. Accurate, timely career guidance can help successfully transition young people from their school years to employment, by ensuring that they understand their true options based on real labour market data and demand. Proactive career guidance can also help circumvent the gender stereotyping and socio-economic opportunity gaps that often hold young people back from choosing certain occupations. In general, technical and vocational training is underutilized – and often unjustly neglected by education systems as a second-best option. Such training and education can be a key driver of economic growth, by providing many of the skills required for jobs that will have genuine staying power in future labour markets. Technical qualifications may be best designed through collaboration between employers and industry groups, and particular attention should be paid to fostering their evolution based on sets of mutually agreed-upon standards.

Lifelong Learning Pathways

Education typically ends at an early stage of life, to the detriment of workers and employers

In Europe and the US, demand for physical and manual skills in repeatable tasks is expected to decline by 30% in the coming decade, according to McKinsey & Company, while demand for technological skills like coding is expected to increase by more than 50%. As career paths are increasingly altered by fundamental labour market disruptions, there is a growing need for lifelong learning – at all ages, both inside and outside of traditional schools, including after the completion of formal education. Adult training is vital; helping employees gain new skills will be a key way to alleviate unemployment, address unequal access to resources, and engage older people in the workforce. While nearly 84% of the world’s talent under the age of 25 is being “optimized” through education, that figure falls to 45% for those over 25, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Human Capital Report. In order to better engage people over 25 in gaining new skills, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning has recommended the development of national qualifications frameworks, and providing lifelong learning through community centres.

Better integrating literacy and basic skills programs into national education agendas can lead to an improved quality of life. Many developing countries have made significant progress in terms of increasing investment in education for young people, though education systems around the world continue to emphasize the front-loading of learning at an early stage of life – leaving older generations with educational attainment only as an increasingly faint memory. Skills decline when they are not used, as noted in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Survey of Adult Skills; accurately mapping the typical skills lifecycle is key for estimating the points at which people will likely have a need to refresh their competencies – whether with the aim of simply changing careers, re-entering the workforce after caring for a family member, or following an extended illness. Ideally, education systems can thrive thanks to a fundamentally strong public sector. However, by working together with the private sector, governments and educators could potentially develop more necessary infrastructure for providing learning and training opportunities to workers at all stages of their careers.

Arts in Education

Arts education can develop crucial skills and values, and foster creativity

Providing a quality arts education can help students gain skills and attributes that are currently in high demand, such as problem solving, flexibility, persistence, and cooperation. The Arts Council of England published a review in 2014, The Value of Arts and Culture to People and Society, which noted that participation in the arts can reduce social exclusion and strengthen communities, as high school students who engage in the arts at school are twice as likely to volunteer in their communities as those who do not, and are 20% more likely to vote as young adults. According to a report commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, The Qualities of Quality, a quality arts education can strengthen one’s capacity to think creatively and to make connections – and one’s ability to apply creative thinking can in turn positively impact society. Many benefits of arts education are not easily quantifiable through data sets, however. Funding for arts education around the world has suffered drastic cuts in recent years, and it is often only included as a supplement to other subjects. The so-called STEM to STEAM movement, founded by the Rhode Island School of Design, aims to expand traditional STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to include “A”rt and Design, in order to enhance innovation. A digital mapping tool that illustrates “STEAM” activity around the world, in order to help advocates of the movement connect, was published in 2014.

Adopting creative thinking in the commercial world can lead to positive results. A survey of CEOs published by the consultancy PwC in 2017 showed that 77% found it difficult to find the creativity and innovation skills they need; and, while STEM skills were seen as important, according to the survey, demand for them was outstripped by the desire for “soft” skills including creativity. The World Economic Forum’s 2016 Future of Jobs report counted creativity as one of the top three skills workers would require by 2020, and a subsequent Forum report, The Future of Jobs and Skills in the Middle East and North Africa: Preparing the Region for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, flagged a current deficiency of skills in the region including creativity and independent thinking. Creative risk-taking and experimentation can aid confidence; increasing students’ capacity for creative thinking is essential to prepare them to take on careers that do not yet exist, and to tackle problems not yet identified.

Education for Sustainable Development

Education for Sustainable Development presents an opportunity for all of us to embrace new innovative ideas to fast track our progress
in realizing SDGs. Notably, this will see us meet each SDG whilst increasing efficiency and capacity towards sustainability development. This must be hinged on robust institutional frameworks with distinct, yet complementary roles, responsibilities and accountability measures. For instance, do we have the right policy and legislative measures in place that, if adequately implemented, will deliver these global development goals? Are the policies aligned with the overall economic goal of the country? This report seeks to give answers to these questions, as it sheds light on our readiness for the implementation of SDGs from a legislative perspective. In the meantime, we remain hopeful that
by the end of the decade, the realization of these goals will have translated to increased employment, inclusivity, efficient use of resources by industry and all citizens.

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Future we choose for our Children Post COVid 19

The massive global response to COVID-19 leads us to the question: what can we take from the pandemic to tackle the looming climate crisis leading to learning crisis in Children.

We all have a role to play

Climate change and COVID-19 are two very different challenges, but they do have some key things in common. Both are global – they do not respect national boundaries – and both require countries to work together to find solutions.

The global community has shown that it can act to address a crisis, with governments, businesses and individuals taking measures and changing behaviours in response to the pandemic. When we work together, even small personal actions when put together, like physical distancing, can make a big difference, helping us to overcome huge challenges.

This kind of intergenerational solidarity is what solves crises. As the impact of climate change intensifies over time, it is the children and young people of today who will face its worst effects. Young people have been telling us that they are afraid of climate change with the same urgency as people now feel about COVID-19. This is a time for children and young people to talk with parents and grandparents, to discuss the kind of world we want to create when the pandemic has passed.

The major step in this direction would be to educate The Future Generations The school children on every single issue related to Sustainable Development and that will include all the 17 SDG’s.

This is a golden opportunity for the world to make this kind of education a GLobal Policy – Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) a trajectory , a meaningful alternative to this Crisis. Let us make new rules to live by once the Contagion of COVID 19 is over.

It is becoming clear by each day from January 2020 that in one way or another , there has to be major adjustments/ shifts in the way we human beings live , because the way we live today is unsustainable. Simply put the ecological systems and resources we rely on cannot sustain current aggregate rates of consumption and procreation. COVID 19 is a new message for humanity – We, humans are the real enemies of nature.

Public awareness of humanity ‘s collectively unsustainable trajectory is growing post COVID 19. We were understandably reluctant to turn away from our daily affairs and contemplate the extent and nature of the risks today’s children will face over the course of their lives. Unless we confront these risks and take appropriate action soon and don’t use this opportunity of COVID 19 things will only get worse. The magnitude of suffering and risk of societal collapse will simply increase.

We acknowledge that this Global Policy – Education for Sustainable Development( ESD) is just one articulation of a feeling that is being felt all across the world. We see this Policy as one branch of a much wider, stronger, wiser movement. The future will not be the same Post COVID 19. We know that for certain. Let us Care about the Future of God’s Creation – Our very own Planet Earth.

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Greening Education Partnership

GOAL 4 : QUALITY EDUCATION