Laura Boniface
39% of the worldwide poor do not have and will most likely never receive any formal education, setting them back for the rest of their lives. They will most likely never be able to gain any qualifications and may not even learn the basic skills of reading, writing and doing mathematics.
In 2015, the United Nations created a list of goals that have the power to create a better world for us to live in, they are known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. These goals cover many different aspects of social development, environmental protection, and economic growth. They were created as a guide of what governments, businesses, civil society and the general public will need to work towards in order to create a brighter future for everyone.
The fourth of these seventeen goals is Quality Education, and was created to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Education frees the mind, and expands the imagination. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”It is a key to success and opens up a world of possibilities, allowing each of us to make a positive contribution to a progressive and healthy society. Learning is beneficial to everyone and should be available to everyone.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has created setbacks for this goal becoming a reality. Prior to COVID-19, progress towards a more inclusive and equitable quality education was too slow, and more than 200 million children will still be out of school by 2030. However, because of the effects of COVID-19, school closures kept 90 percent of all students out of school, reversing years of educational progress.
COVID-19 also worsens educational inequalities. As a result, in low-income countries, the school completion rate for children is 79 percent in the wealthiest 20% of households and 34 percent in the poorest 20% of households. Not to mention, globally, over 1.2 billion children are no longer able to learn in a classroom environment due to COVID-19, causing education to change dramatically, meaning that those 1.2 billion children are now having to be homeschooled or have been tackling the challenges of online learning. Because of this, at least 500 million students are unable to participate in school because their household lacks adequate technology for them to be able to take part.
It is estimated that an additional 101 million children (from grades 1 - 9) fell below the minimum reading proficiency level in 2020 due to COVID-19, which wiped out the education gains achieved over the last 20 years. Recovery could occur by 2024, but only if exceptional efforts are devoted to the task using exceptional catch-up strategies.
After one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, 2 in every 3 students worldwide are still affected by full or partial school closures. In some areas, the most vulnerable students and those unable to access remote learning have an increased risk of never being able to return to finish their education, and may even be forced into child marriage or child labor to ease expenses for the family and provide a source of income.
Early childhood education has also been severely impacted by the pandemic and many young children are unable to attend and therefore must rely on their parents and caregivers for the correct care and education. Unfortunately many of these children are experiencing negative interactions with their caregivers, lack educational opportunities, and face an absence of educational resources at their homes, leading to irreversible outcomes, affecting a child’s potential for the rest of their lives.
Having a good education means that the child will have the ability to gain skills which will give them better job opportunities, and a better chance to have a higher income. Kids Can (a New Zealand charity) states that children in poverty are more likely to leave school without NCEA Level 1, meaning less job options available for them. Leaving school without any qualifications means fewer job opportunities, and the likelihood of being employed is lower.
Today, over 260 million children do not attend school, have no access to education, and therefore are failing to learn because they are unable to attend. Although access to school is only one of the issues as to why children are unable to attend. Other factors also affect this, such as a lack of quality education, costs involved with attending schools, and no available schools in that specific area. As many as ⅓ of the 260 million children mentioned before live in fragile countries or in conflict zones where it is unsafe for them to attend school.
Overseas countries such as Sri Lanka, Liberia, and Zambia have some of the most inadequate education systems, and this could be due to conflict in that area, economic problems, or underfunded schools and other education programs. Unfortunately for countries like these, the lack of education can lead to other problems such as poor health. According to the UNHCR, simply educating all girls to a secondary school level would decrease worldwide deaths from illnesses such as pneumonia and malaria by 49%. Other problems it can lead to are a shorter lifespan, a poverty trap, unemployment, gender inequality, and it can also be harder for them to raise their own children.
Here in New Zealand we should be extremely lucky for the education system that we have, however it has its flaws, such as struggling to find enough support for vulnerable students (eg. wellbeing or mental health needs due to a lack of qualified professionals in New Zealand and the caseloads of those who are qualified), staffing levels/class sizes, and insufficient funding for schools. New Zealand is currently ranked eighth in the world Education Rankings for 2021. Unfortunately, New Zealand is quite often overlooked due to the fact that it is a small country, and we do not often pay attention to these flaws, and are constantly ignoring the fact that they do need to be fixed because we have it better off than some other countries.
Child poverty is becoming more prevalent in New Zealand, and children who live in poverty have a difficult time getting an education. Children in poverty have a difficult time getting to school because of the prices, the distance from their houses to the nearest school, and their parents' motivation to send their children to school.
In New Zealand, about 40% of children do not attend school on a regular basis. If a child under the age of 16 does not attend school, their parents may be prosecuted and fined, and a parent may be charged $30 for each day their child is absent without a valid reason. Some of the benefits of these children being sent to school are the qualifications they receive and the other skills and abilities they learn along the path, those who are able to apply schooling have more success in adult life.
Ten targets were created with this goal (also by the United Nations) as steps to its completion. The aim of this is for the goal to be completed before 2030. Some involve making all primary and secondary schools free to attend for boys and girls, and eliminating all discrimination in education. Others involve increasing the supply of qualified teachers in developing countries, and expanding higher education scholarships for developing states and African countries. Even though these are only four of the targets that were created, they are all valid, and all need equal attention and effort to be able to achieve the goal.
Dr Seuss once wisely said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.” So let’s work on giving children the opportunity to go more places in life by starting with giving them all equal opportunities to get an education.
We can help out by donating our old school resources to charities such as the Salvation Army, mentor other students to help their education, or by spreading the word. Together we can provide this inclusive and equitable quality education and also promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
References:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country
https://helpfulprofessor.com/lack-of-education/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/
https://www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/the-problem/10-facts-about-school-attendance/