How Can We All Help to Fix This?

• More ways we can help to try and reach the goal of universal quality education include:

  • Encourage our governments to make education a priority in both "policy and practice"

  • Lobby our governments to do more to offer free and reliable quality education

    
    

    Quality Education -- https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/

    
    

What is the Sustainable Development Goal for Worldwide Quality Education?

• The goal is to address the detrimental effects of poor quality schooling/education by:

  • Providing free primary and secondary schooling for all boys and girls by 2030

  • Providing access to affordable vocational training

  • Eliminating gender and wealth disparities

  • Universal access to quality higher education

• Necessary steps to achieve this goal:

  • National investment in education financing

  • Free, compulsory education

  • Increasing the number of teachers

  • Improving school infrastructure

  • Embracing digital transformation

• Critical Challenges to achieving this goal:

  • Poverty

  • High drop-out rates

  • Gender inequality

  • Lack of technology and digital access

Quality Education -- https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/

The Importance of Quality Education

• “Education is the key that will allow many other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved. When people are able to get quality education they can break from the cycle of poverty.”

• “Education is also crucial to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to more peaceful societies.”

• Additionally, quality education is crucial to:

  • Reach gender equality

  • Empower people to live better/healthier lives

  • Provide people with the skills that are necessary in the workplace and fighting the ongoing issue of poverty

Quality Education -- https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/

Critical State of Worldwide Education

• Quality education slow before COVID — COVID made it even slower

• Pandemic had devastating consequences on worldwide education

• 4 out of 5 of the 104 countries studied have experienced learning loss since pandemic

• “Without additional measures, an estimated 84 million children and young people will stay out of school by 2030 and approximately 300 million students will lack the basic numeracy and literacy skills necessary for success in life.”

• Geographically, Sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenges to providing basic educational resources.

  • Situation is dire primary and lower secondary levels

  • Fewer than half of schools in sub-Saharan Africa have access to drinking water, electricity, computers and the Internet.

• In terms of gender, women and girls are far more disadvantaged worldwide

  • 40% of countries lack gender equality in education

  • Impact of this disparity = limits women's skill development, labor market, and opportunity for advancement

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/

Why is access to quality education important?

• people + higher levels of education = more likely to live longer and healthier

• Children who:

  • come from low income families

  • have disabilities

  • experience discrimination — bullying

  Tend to struggle with number and writing skills + less likely to graduate high school or go to college

• Children + no access to quality education = problems later on such as:

  • heart disease

  • diabetes

  • depression

Healthy People 2030 — Education Access and Quality — https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/education-access-and-quality

What they are all about.

• Work to improve worldwide education quality

• Encourage more innovation and new ways of thinking

• Advocate for always learning new things

• Made up of a very diverse group of education advocates

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/social-determinants-health/education-access-and-quality/?top=312

The Problem

• Education = critical to health/wellbeing of young children

• High quality Education = possibility to break through poverty that was passed down from earlier generations

• Access to high-quality education not equal

• Inequality and discrimination = cause of poor education for many

Child Welfare Information Gateway — Education Access and Quality — https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/social-determinants-health/education-access-and-quality/?top=312

What can we do to help?

• State + school leaders need to work together to improve opportunities for high quality education

• We need to learn to use data data to make sure equity is in school

• Have to eliminate discrimination — race, sex, ethnicity, etc — to improve education quality

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/social-determinants-health/education-access-and-quality/?top=312

Malala’s Story

• Born in Mingora, Pakistan on July 12 1997

• Jan, 2008, Malala’s town = taken over by Taliban = banned girls from going to school

• In rebellion against Taliban, Malala spoke out against them for girls’ right to school = a masked gunman shooting her in her head in 2012

• Once recovered from this horrible act of violence, Malala took the opportunity she had been given — she continued speaking out for female rights — especially in education

https://malala.org

How Malala fund got started and what they do.

• Malala fund = organization to help fight for:

  • giving girls opportunities that they deserve

  • gender equity

• Malala fund was started by Malala and her dad

• To this day, Malala travels around the world to help girls who are facing:

  • poverty

  • wars

  • child marrige

  • discrimination

so that they can get the quality education they deserve.

https://malala.org

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. United Nations, 2023, www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.

Improvements in Gender Equality and Education

• today = girls getting education at higher levels than ever before

• Primary School Completion for girls = 90%

• Girls now are getting higher level of education from global research

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/closing-gap-tackling-remaining-disparities-girls-education-and-womens-labor-market

Challenges in Female Education

• in low-income countries, girls enrollment = 78% in comparison to the world average of 88%

• in low income countries, girl secondary school enrollment = 31% compared to the global average of 66%

• girls = 2.5 times as likely to be out of school + learning poor

• learning poverty, especially for girls, is especially high in:

  • Chand

  • Burundi

  • Niger

  • Yemen

  • Afghanistan

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/closing-gap-tackling-remaining-disparities-girls-education-and-womens-labor-market

Facts:

• “Malala Fund works to secure 12 years of free, safe, quality education for all girls so they can learn and lead without fear”

• Malala fund invests in “education advocates and activists, who challenge the policies and practices that prevent girls from going to school…

https://malala.org/malalas-story?sc=header