On Wednesday, 28 June 2017, representatives of the IBVM NGO attended The General Assembly Action Event at the United Nations, where a full day of panels aimed at achieving the 4th Sustainable Development Goal took place.
The speakers at the Event were enthusiastic and determined. They advocated for a vital change in perception of education.
Education is crucial to sustainable development world wide. Education lays the foundation for future generations, who must live in a world facing issues of climate change and inequality, to become leaders of positive and sustainable change. Education is a human right, which opens doors to innovation, employment, gender equality and many other goals that the UN wishes to achieve by 2030.
The dialogues that ensued highlighted the 3 major challenges with the international standard of education.
- Access: 263 million young people, and 600 million adults/youth (60% being women) do not have access to education. Education is not seen as the human right that it is.
- Quality: Nearly 40% of students leave primary school without having mastered any basic math or language skills. Education needs extensive resources, training and a modernization of curriculum and learning model.
- Governance: A holistic vision is needed. While a top-down approach is still pertinent to ensure adequate funding for education, there needs to be more collaboration with those on the grass roots level: teachers and parents engaging in deep dialogue with key decision makers.
So…what is the solution to the issue of access and quality?
Innovation!
Innovation, though commonly used in reference to technology, can take forms in many ways. A representative from WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) talked about innovation in the form of a curriculum change, a change in standardized testing, and development in physical school facilities.
Leslee Udwin, British filmmaker and human rights activist, passionately spoke about the need for innovation of school curriculum. This was a point that really stood out to the room. School must teach value based social and emotional learning. Education can be a tool to change the mindset young people, teaching them how to exist in the world in a peaceful way.
Technology can be used as a conduit for the outcome of learning, and this was an issue discussed in the second dialogue of the event. Online universities provide high quality, affordable and easily accessed education for all individuals without discrimination.
It should be noted that technological tools should not replace a traditional schooling system. An iPad cannot fulfil the multifaceted role of a compassionate and empathetic teacher. In this media revolution we find ourselves in, the centrality of teachers should not be undermined.
The third panel was geared towards the planning of education in humanitarian situations. In the face of disaster, education is the least resilient or prioritised.
The General Assembly proposed the Three I’s for moving forward:
Invest long term funding focusing on the planning and preparedness of schools and children.
Improve quality of education to meet the SDGs learning outcome targets. This means building teach capacity and employing a mechanism to measure progress.
Include every child. Every child has the right to effective education.
Leonor Briones, Secretary of the Department of Education of the Republic of the Philippines, provided a powerful anecdote on her experience as a child, writing on banana leaves for school in the wake of a catastrophic natural disaster. It was the empowering force of learning that helped her get through the immense hardship.
A key takeaway from this event would be that education is a key which opens doors to all the other Sustainable Development Goals. As such, the United Nations continues to work towards ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.
